Chapter 3 - Eleven Months Earlier
The police took Vanessa out in handcuffs just after sunset.
She didn’t fight.
That scared me more.
As she passed Alexander, she said, “You still think this started with me?”
He didn’t answer.
That night, Noah finally slept in the guest room beside mine while Alexander sat in his library with Claire’s old files spread across the desk.
I should have gone to bed.
Instead I stood in the doorway.
“Mr. Whitmore?”
“Alexander.”
I hesitated.
He looked older than he had that morning.
“Tell me everything you remember about the night Claire died.”
I swallowed.
I had been downstairs. Rain. A broken glass near the back stairwell. Claire on the landing. Nolan already inside the house before the ambulance arrived.
“How fast?” Alexander asked.
“Too fast.”
He looked up.
“Nolan told me he was nearby.”
“He said that to everyone.”
Alexander opened Claire’s calendar.
Her final appointment that day was with Nolan Pierce.
Then he found a note tucked between two pages.
NOLAN KNOWS ABOUT V.
Alexander tapped the letter.
“V.”
“Vanessa?” I asked.
“They barely knew each other then.”
My stomach tightened.
A memory surfaced.
Six weeks after Claire’s funeral, Vanessa had arrived at the house for a charity meeting.
Nolan had greeted her by her first name before Alexander introduced them.
I told him.
Alexander went still.
Then the nursery monitor crackled.
A male voice whispered through it.
“Rachel.”
I froze.
The voice came again.
“You should have let the baby cry.”
May you like
Alexander grabbed the monitor.
The nursery camera feed went black.
