Chapter 7 - What Rebecca Put in the Medicine
The first bullet struck the wall above Ethan’s shoulder.
The second shattered the framed photograph beside the safe.
Ethan pushed a heavy desk against the door while Sloane pulled open the windows.
The lake lay fifteen feet below.
Too far for Claire to jump safely while pregnant.
Smoke rolled into the study.
Claire wrapped Ruth’s recorder and documents inside her coat.
“Is there another exit?” Ethan asked.
“There used to be a service passage behind the bookshelves.”
Sloane stared at her.
“How do you know?”
“Grandma showed me when I was ten.”
They pulled books from the shelves until Claire found the carved wooden latch.
A narrow panel opened into darkness.
Ethan entered first.
Claire followed with Sloane behind her.
The passage descended toward the old pantry. Heat pressed through the walls as the fire spread across the house.
Rebecca’s footsteps entered the study.
“She took the recording,” Rebecca shouted.
Another voice answered her.
A man’s voice.
“You were supposed to remove it years ago.”
Claire stopped.
Sloane gripped her shoulder.
“That sounds like Dad.”
It was not Richard.
The voice was younger.
Matthew Hall had arrived.
Claire continued downward.
They emerged in the pantry beside the kitchen. Flames blocked the front entrance.
Ethan broke a side window and helped Claire through.
Sloane followed.
Outside, snow had begun falling lightly across the lake.
A man stood near the dock holding a gas can.
He was in his late thirties, with Richard’s height and the same severe mouth.
Matthew.
Rebecca came out behind him.
Neither looked surprised to see the sisters.
Matthew pointed toward Claire’s coat.
“That belongs to my family.”
Sloane laughed in disbelief.
“Our father stole from us to support you, and you think the evidence belongs to you?”
“He stole money that should have been mine.”
“Grandma did not leave you anything.”
“Because Diane made sure she never accepted me.”
Claire studied him.
Matthew had built his entire anger around a version of the story Richard and Rebecca had given him.
“Did Dad tell you he was still married when you were born?”
Matthew’s eyes hardened.
“He said he planned to leave.”
“For thirty six years?”
Rebecca raised the gun.
“Enough.”
Claire looked at her.
“What did you give my grandmother?”
Rebecca’s face changed.
Only slightly.
But Claire saw guilt.
“She was in pain.”
“You altered her medication.”
“Richard asked me to keep her calm.”
“The ledger says medication adjustment.”
“She became agitated after discovering Matthew.”
“She was preparing to report the theft.”
“She was destroying everything my son deserved.”
Sloane stepped forward.
“So you caused her stroke.”
Rebecca’s gun moved toward her.
Matthew caught his mother’s wrist.
“We came for the recorder, not another body.”
Rebecca stared at him.
“She will send you to prison.”
“You already made that possible.”
Claire realized there was division between them.
Matthew wanted the evidence destroyed.
Rebecca wanted the witnesses silenced.
A police siren sounded faintly from the road.
Rebecca panicked.
She fired toward Claire.
Sloane shoved Claire aside.
The bullet struck the dock railing.
Ethan tackled Matthew while Sloane grabbed Rebecca’s arm.
The gun fell onto the snow.
Claire picked it up with both hands.
“Stop.”
Everyone froze.
Her hands were shaking, but her voice was not.
Rebecca looked at the weapon.
“You will not use it.”
“No,” Claire said. “But the police will use your fingerprints.”
Headlights appeared near the house.
The officer emerged first. Diane came behind him with blood on one side of her face.
She saw Matthew.
Her entire body went still.
Richard’s hidden son looked back at her.
Diane understood immediately.
All the years of excuses, unexplained absences, and missing money came together in one face.
“Is this why?” she whispered.
Matthew said nothing.
Diane turned toward Rebecca.
“You were in my mother’s room the night she collapsed.”
Rebecca moved toward the lake.
The officer ordered her to stop.
She ran.
The ice near the dock looked solid, but it had only recently formed.
Rebecca stepped onto it.
A crack split across the surface.
Matthew shouted for his mother.
The ice broke beneath her.
May you like
She disappeared into the black water.
Continue to the next part: Rebecca vanishes beneath the frozen lake while Diane must decide whether to save the woman who helped betray her family.
