Chapter 5 - THE SECRET ELISE TOOK TO HER GRAVE
Harlan waited until Belle was asleep.
Then he took me downstairs.
That alone told me how much had changed.
Three days earlier, I was a stranger he interrogated in a hospital hallway.
Now he led me into a locked study nobody else seemed allowed to enter.
Elise’s photograph stood on the desk.
She had dark red hair, green eyes, and a smile that looked nothing like Harlan’s controlled expressions.
Belle had her smile.
“She wanted a divorce?” I asked.
“Yes.”
“Why?”
Harlan looked at the photograph.
“Because she thought I was becoming my father.”
“What was your father like?”
“Cruel.”
Simple answer.
Complicated silence.
“My father built Voss Holdings through legitimate freight contracts, illegal port deals, intimidation, bribery, whatever worked.”
“And you?”
“I spent fifteen years making most of it legal.”
“Most?”
His eyes met mine.
“I’m not going to lie to you, Rue.”
That was not reassuring.
“But Elise didn’t believe the past ever really disappears.”
“Did you hurt her?”
His face hardened.
“No.”
“I had to ask.”
“I know.”
“What about Grant?”
Harlan crossed to a cabinet and removed a file.
Inside were photographs.
Grant and Elise entering a restaurant.
Grant helping her into a car.
Grant standing too close outside an apartment building.
I stared.
“They were having an affair?”
“I thought so.”
“Were they?”
“Elise denied it.”
“Did Grant?”
“He said they were friends.”
“You didn’t believe them.”
“No.”
“What happened the night she died?”
Harlan’s jaw tightened.
“We argued.”
“About Grant?”
“Yes.”
“She left?”
“Yes.”
“And crashed.”
“Yes.”
The guilt was obvious.
“You think she died because you made her leave angry.”
“I know she did.”
“That’s not the same as killing her.”
“Tell Belle that.”
I looked at him.
“Did she ever blame you?”
“No.”
“Then why are you?”
He didn’t answer.
I opened the file again.
One photograph showed Grant handing Elise an envelope.
“What was that?”
“I never knew.”
“Maybe this has nothing to do with an affair.”
“That thought occurred to me after she died.”
“Did you investigate?”
“My investigator found nothing.”
“Was that investigator Tomas?”
Harlan’s gaze sharpened.
“Yes.”
The security director.
The man currently controlling every camera in the house.
My skin prickled.
“Who hired Tomas?”
“My father.”
“How long has he worked for you?”
“Fourteen years.”
“That doesn’t make him trustworthy.”
“It usually does.”
“No.”
I thought of Nora.
Someone had framed a dead nanny.
Used Elise’s old credentials.
Deleted footage.
Entered Belle’s bedroom.
“That makes him familiar.”
Harlan studied me.
“You don’t trust anyone.”
“I’m a waitress from a bad neighborhood. It’s why I still have my kidneys.”
That actually made him laugh.
A real one this time.
It changed his face.
For one dangerous second, I forgot he terrified an entire city.
Then Tomas knocked.
Harlan’s expression returned to normal.
“We traced the balcony breach.”
“And?”
“No external cameras caught anyone.”
I looked at him.
“That’s impossible.”
Tomas glanced at me.
“It means they knew the blind spots.”
“Or controlled the cameras.”
His eyes narrowed.
Harlan noticed.
“Rue.”
“What?”
“You’re accusing my security director.”
“I’m asking a question.”
Tomas smiled without warmth.
“I understand Miss Callaway has had an exciting few days.”
Exciting.
Belle poisoned.
Nora dead.
Someone in her bedroom.
I disliked him instantly.
“Exciting isn’t the word I’d use.”
Tomas turned to Harlan.
“The photograph is authentic. Metadata is old.”
“What location?”
“A private fertility clinic in Bloomfield Hills.”
I blinked.
“Fertility clinic?”
Harlan looked confused too.
“Elise never mentioned one.”
“Maybe Grant went with her.”
Harlan’s face hardened.
“Find out why.”
Tomas left.
I watched him go.
“He doesn’t like me.”
“No.”
“You sound pleased.”
“I’m rarely entertained.”
“That explains your house.”
His gaze returned to the fertility clinic photograph.
“What was Elise doing there?”
We had an answer the next morning.
The clinic had closed two years earlier.
But one former nurse agreed to meet.
Her name was Helen Park.
She was sixty-three and terrified before she even sat down.
“I knew someone would eventually ask.”
Harlan leaned forward.
“Ask what?”
Helen looked at Belle’s photograph on his phone.
“Your daughter was conceived there.”
Harlan went completely still.
“No.”
“Yes.”
“Elise became pregnant naturally.”
“She told you that.”
“She was already pregnant when she visited.”
Helen shook her head.
“She went through IVF.”
Harlan’s face became unreadable.
“Why would she hide that?”
The nurse looked at him.
“Because the embryo wasn’t yours.”
The room stopped.
I stared at Harlan.
His skin turned pale.
“What?”
Helen reached into her bag.
“Elise asked me to keep copies.”
She handed over old clinic records.
My stomach tightened.
“Why?”
“Because she was frightened.”
“Of whom?”
“Your father.”
Harlan’s eyes sharpened.
The paperwork listed the biological father.
Not Grant.
Not a stranger.
The field said:
DONOR: CONFIDENTIAL, VOSS FAMILY DESIGNATE.
“What does that mean?”
Helen swallowed.
“Your father arranged it.”
Harlan stood abruptly.
“My father chose Belle’s biological father?”
“Yes.”
“Who?”
Helen looked afraid to answer.
Finally she whispered, “Grant.”
Silence.
I felt sick.
Harlan stared at the record.
“You’re saying my brother is Belle’s father.”
“Biologically.”
His hand tightened around the paper.
“Did Elise agree?”
“No.”
That was worse.
Helen’s voice trembled.
“Elise believed your embryos were being used. She found out after Belle was born.”
I covered my mouth.
Harlan looked like someone had struck him.
“Why would my father do that?”
“Grant carries a rare genetic marker your father considered important for the succession trust.”
“That makes no sense.”
“It did to him.”
Helen continued.
“Your father was obsessed with bloodline, inheritance, continuity. He believed you might refuse to have children after what happened to your mother.”
Harlan turned away.
“And Grant knew?”
“I don’t know.”
“What about Elise?”
“She discovered the file three months before she died.”
The same time as the photographs.
That explained the secret meetings.
Elise had not been having an affair with Grant.
She had been confronting him.
Trying to discover whether he knew.
Harlan whispered, “I accused her.”
My heart broke for him.
“She was trying to tell you.”
“I didn’t listen.”
“She was scared.”
“I called her a liar.”
He pressed both hands against the table.
Then another truth hit me.
“If Grant is Belle’s biological father…”
Harlan looked at me.
“He can challenge the trust.”
Exactly.
If he proved paternity, he wouldn’t need Belle dead.
He could potentially claim control through her.
Unless something else prevented him.
Helen’s face changed.
“There’s more.”
Of course there was.
“Elise ordered an independent test.”
“What test?”
“Belle’s DNA.”
“And?”
“She discovered Grant wasn’t the donor either.”
Harlan froze.
“What?”
Helen’s eyes filled with tears.
“The clinic record had been falsified.”
“Then who is Belle’s biological father?”
“I don’t know.”
Harlan’s phone rang.
Tomas.
He answered.
His expression changed within seconds.
“What do you mean she’s gone?”
I stood.
“Harlan?”
He turned toward me.
Every trace of color had disappeared.
Belle’s private tutor had taken her into the garden twenty minutes earlier.
Neither had returned.
The security cameras had been disabled.
And on Belle’s bed, someone had left one sentence.
THIS TIME, BRING THE GIRL FROM THE GARAGE TOO.
May you like
They didn’t just want Belle anymore.
They wanted me.
