Chapter 6 - THE WOMAN AT THE OAK
Cole’s truck tore across the wet estate road.
Sarah sat beside him.
A sheriff’s vehicle followed.
The rain had eased, but the ground was slick and darkness had settled over the property.
“You really think Caroline buried legal documents under a tree?” Cole asked.
Sarah shook her head.
“No.”
“Then what is Paige looking for?”
“Probably something Evan convinced her existed.”
Cole’s hands tightened on the wheel.
“Why?”
“Because desperate people destroy things before they verify whether those things matter.”
Headlights swept across the hill.
A vehicle was parked crooked near the fence.
Madison’s.
Cole slammed the truck into park.
He saw Paige immediately.
She was beside the oak.
Mud covered her shoes.
A garden spade lay on the ground.
She had already pulled away several small stones surrounding the memorial plaque.
Cole’s anger became physical.
“Paige!”
She turned.
Her face was streaked with rain and tears.
“Stay back.”
Cole walked toward her.
“What are you doing?”
“You don’t understand.”
“I understand exactly what I’m looking at.”
“No, you don’t!”
Sarah came up behind him.
“Paige, step away from the memorial.”
Paige laughed bitterly.
“Of course you’re here.”
Sheriff Morrow approached more cautiously.
“Ms. Mercer, put the shovel down.”
“It’s already down.”
“Then step away from it.”
Paige looked at Cole.
“Evan lied to me.”
“Yes.”
“He said you approved everything.”
“You knew I didn’t approve stealing Ava’s necklace.”
Paige flinched.
“You knew I didn’t approve removing Caroline’s belongings.”
“She was dead!”
The words echoed across the hill.
Cole stared at her.
Paige pressed both hands against her face.
“I’m sorry.”
“No.”
“I am.”
“No, you’re sorry you got caught.”
Her face twisted.
“Do you know what it was like living here?”
Cole’s expression didn’t change.
“No. Tell me.”
“Everywhere I went, people compared me to her.”
“Who?”
“Everyone.”
“Name one.”
Paige opened her mouth.
Nothing came.
Cole continued.
“Did Ruth tell you Caroline was better?”
“No.”
“Did Ava?”
“She didn’t have to.”
“She was seven when you moved in.”
“You don’t understand.”
“Then make me.”
Paige’s shoulders shook.
“I could never win.”
Cole looked at the disturbed stones beside the tree.
“That was the problem.”
She stared at him.
“You thought there was something to win.”
Paige began crying harder.
“I loved you.”
“Maybe.”
“I did.”
“But you wanted me without the life that made me who I was.”
“I wanted us to have something that belonged to us.”
“We could have.”
Cole pointed toward the house below.
“There were empty rooms.”
He pointed toward hundreds of acres stretching beyond the tree.
“Empty land.”
Then toward Ava’s memorial.
“You didn’t want something new. You wanted everything old removed first.”
Paige whispered, “I thought if Ava stopped surrounding herself with Caroline, she might accept me.”
“She did accept you.”
Paige looked confused.
“Before all this, she did.”
Cole remembered birthday breakfasts.
Ava asking Paige to braid her hair.
Ava making Paige a terrible clay bracelet at school.
Ava saving a seat beside her at a Christmas performance.
Children didn’t understand replacement politics.
Adults created that.
“She trusted you,” Cole said.
Paige looked away.
“That was never enough.”
“For you.”
Sheriff Morrow stepped closer.
“Ms. Mercer, I need you to come with me.”
Paige panicked.
“Am I under arrest?”
“At the moment, you’re being detained while we investigate fraud and unauthorized financial activity.”
“I didn’t steal two million dollars.”
“No one said you did.”
“Evan did.”
Sarah asked, “How much did you know?”
Paige laughed.
“You think I’m going to answer you now?”
“You should answer someone.”
“I want an attorney.”
Sarah nodded.
“Good decision.”
Paige turned toward Cole.
“You’re going to let them arrest me?”
Cole looked at her.
“You’re asking the wrong question.”
“What should I ask?”
“How many times did Ava ask you to stop?”
Paige went silent.
Cole’s voice remained calm.
“The horse.”
Silence.
“The box.”
Silence.
“The necklace.”
Paige closed her eyes.
“You kept choosing yourself.”
Sheriff Morrow guided Paige toward the vehicle.
Then she stopped.
“There is something you don’t know.”
Cole looked at her.
Paige’s face changed.
“About Evan.”
“What?”
“He has copies of everything.”
Sarah stepped forward.
“What everything?”
“Your corporate documents. Trust documents. Account credentials.”
Cole felt a chill.
“He was planning to sell access.”
“To whom?”
“I don’t know.”
“Paige.”
“I don’t!”
She looked genuinely frightened.
“He told me one land deal wouldn’t matter because soon you’d have bigger problems.”
Sarah looked at Cole.
“We need your company security team involved tonight.”
Cole nodded.
Paige continued.
“He also said there was someone inside Bennett Hospitality helping him.”
Cole stared.
“Who?”
“He never gave me a name.”
The sheriff led her away.
For several seconds, Cole stood beneath the oak with Sarah.
Then he noticed movement downhill.
Ava.
She was walking toward them with Ruth and Madison.
Cole’s expression hardened.
“I told you to keep her inside.”
Ruth didn’t apologize.
“She saw the lights.”
Ava reached him.
She looked at the disturbed memorial stones.
Her face fell.
“Did Paige dig Mommy up?”
Cole immediately crouched.
“No.”
“Are you sure?”
“Absolutely.”
“Mommy isn’t buried here, remember?”
Ava nodded.
“Her ashes are here.”
“Yes.”
“Can she feel that?”
Cole looked at the broken ring of stones.
“I don’t know.”
Ava knelt.
She began putting the stones back.
One by one.
Cole joined her.
Then Ruth.
Then Madison.
Finally Sarah.
Five people kneeling in wet grass rebuilding the little circle.
When they finished, Ava pressed her palm against the memorial plaque.
Madison stood several feet away.
“I’m sorry.”
Ava looked at her.
“You didn’t do it.”
“My mom did.”
“That’s different.”
Madison started crying.
Ava stood.
For a moment, Cole expected her to walk away.
Instead, she removed the gold horse necklace.
Madison shook her head quickly.
“No.”
“I’m not giving it back.”
Madison blinked.
Ava held the pendant out.
“You can touch it.”
Madison hesitated.
Then touched the tiny gold horse with one finger.
“My mom said it was pretty.”
Ava nodded.
“My mommy liked horses more than jewelry.”
Madison smiled weakly.
“I think I would’ve liked her.”
Ava considered that.
“She liked almost everybody.”
Cole looked toward the dark horizon.
His phone buzzed.
His chief technology officer.
Cole answered.
“Tell me.”
The man’s voice was strained.
“We found the internal account Evan was using.”
“Whose?”
A pause.
“Derek Sloan.”
Cole froze.
Derek was Bennett Hospitality’s chief financial officer.
Twenty-one years with the company.
Cole’s father had hired him.
Cole trusted Derek enough that Ava called him Uncle Derek.
“Are you sure?”
“We have access logs.”
Cole looked toward his daughter.
Another trusted man.
Another blind spot.
“What did he access?”
“Corporate debt files. Acquisition accounts. Private family trusts.”
Cole’s stomach dropped.
“Did he touch Ava’s?”
“We’re still checking.”
Cole’s voice turned cold.
“Check faster.”
Then his CTO said something worse.
“Cole…”
“What?”
“Derek is at headquarters right now.”
Cole looked at his watch.
Almost eleven at night.
“Why?”
“We don’t know.”
Cole stared toward the distant lights of his house.
Then at Caroline’s restored memorial stones.
His family had been attacked quietly.
Not with guns.
Not with threats.
With passwords.
Signatures.
Trust.
And his absence.
Cole stood.
“Lock down the building.”
“What are you going to do?”
Cole looked at Sarah.
May you like
Then at Ava.
“I’m going to stop being the last person who knows what’s happening in my own life.”
