Chapter 14 - FRANCESCA
I did not go alone.
I went looking alone.
There is a difference.
Marco and police stayed outside the abandoned lake house Lucinda named.
Inside, Francesca sat tied to a chair but unhurt.
Lucinda stood beside the fireplace holding a folder.
"Close the door."
I did.
"Let her go."
"Give me the memory card."
"No."
"Then she stays."
Francesca glared at her.
"She's bluffing."
Lucinda slapped the chair back.
"Quiet."
I took one step forward.
Lucinda raised a small knife.
Not at Francesca.
At the folder.
"This codicil destroys everything my father built."
"Good."
Her eyes flashed.
"You think you are better? Your company funded him."
"I know."
That answer unsettled her.
"You signed the grants."
"I know."
"Your board buried complaints."
"I know."
"Then why do I get blamed?"
I looked at her.
"Because you pulled a brace off a six-year-old and watched her fall."
Her face hardened.
No speech about family could erase that.
No corrupt system forced her foot onto Ruby's pain.
Lucinda tore open the folder.
Empty.
Francesca smiled.
"You think Isabella trusted paper?"
Lucinda froze.
The real codicil had been filed with a private trust company in Geneva.
Francesca only carried a decoy.
Police moved when she heard the signal word.
Lucinda swung the knife.
I knocked her wrist away.
Marco came through the door.
Seconds later, she was on the floor in cuffs.
As officers led her out, she turned toward me.
"You still don't know why Ruby was injured."
I stopped.
"You pushed her."
Lucinda smiled.
"I made it worse. I didn't start it."
May you like
Then she said one name.
"Ask Marco."
