Chapter 12 - THE SISTER I HATED
For one ugly second, I thought: good. The thought frightened me.
Peter was taken to the ambulance while Marcus questioned him between paramedics.
Victor had forced him to drive to the estate. They argued when Peter refused to destroy the greenhouse files. Victor hit him, took his car, and called Juliette from Peter’s phone.
“Why would she go with him?” Grant asked.
Peter gave a bitter smile. “Because he told her he could make Caroline disappear legally again.”
My father looked ready to be sick.
Peter turned to me. “You want the truth? Juliette was weak, selfish, terrified, and greedy. But Victor built the cage she lived in. Every time she wanted out, he reminded her that the company collapse would be blamed on her, that your father would lose everything, that the hospital woman might be an impostor.”
“She paid Henry to walk away.”
“Yes.”
“She blocked my DNA test.”
“Yes.”
“So do not ask me to feel sorry for her.”
“I’m not.” Peter’s voice lowered. “I’m asking you to understand why Victor thinks he can still control her.”
Marcus’s phone chimed with a location update from police.
“They traced Peter’s car.”
“Where?”
He looked at me.
“The old Riverfront Hotel.”
My mother had developed that property before she died. It had been closed for renovation for two years.
Grant was already moving toward his car.
Marcus blocked him. “Police handle this.”
“That’s my fiancée.”
“Not anymore,” I said.
He looked at me, hurt flashing across his face.
“I know what she did. I also know I loved her this morning.”
I stopped.
Love does not shut off because truth arrives. I knew that.
Dad touched my shoulder. “Caroline, you do not have to save her.”
“No,” I said. “I don’t.”
Then I looked toward the road where the police cars were turning around.
“But I need her alive long enough to answer me.”
Marcus opened the passenger door.
“Then stay behind the police.”
May you like
As we pulled away, Peter shouted one last thing after us.
“Victor keeps a gun in the hotel office.”
