Chapter 5 - THE WOMAN WHO CALLED HERSELF DEADBy dawn, the wedding story was everywhere.
Not the real story.
Not yet.
Only the shiny, broken pieces people could film from behind champagne glasses.
Bride stops cake cutting.
Groom arrested at luxury wedding.
Waitress exposes poisoning attempt.
Best man found dead in venue garage.
By six in the morning, grainy videos had appeared online.
Olivia in her wedding gown, shouting at Daniel.
Sophie knocking the spoon from her hand.
Dr. Harper testing the frosting.
Daniel running.
Madison crying.
The internet did what it always did.
It made strangers hungry.
Some called Olivia lucky.
Some called Sophie a hero.
Some accused Olivia of staging it for attention.
Some dug up Daniel’s old business profiles and called him handsome enough to deserve forgiveness.
By seven, reporters camped outside the Bennett family home.
By eight, Olivia had removed her wedding dress and put on black trousers, a white sweater, and her grandmother’s watch.
Not because she was calm.
Because grief had work to do.
Sophie sat across from her in the Bennett library, wrapped in a blanket despite the July heat.
Detective Ruiz had arranged protective officers outside the house.
Technically, Sophie was a witness.
Unofficially, everyone knew she was a target.
Olivia watched her stare at the shelves of leather-bound books and silver-framed family portraits.
“This is weird,” Sophie said.
Olivia almost smiled.
“Weird is a generous word.”
Sophie looked at her.
“I ruined your wedding.”
Olivia’s expression softened.
“You saved my life.”
“Maybe Daniel was telling the truth. Maybe the cake was meant for me.”
“Then you saved your own life too.”
Sophie looked down.
“I don’t want your money.”
Olivia leaned back.
The sentence came out of nowhere, but not really.
Money had entered every wound before blood could dry.
“I didn’t think you did.”
Sophie’s laugh was small and bitter.
“You should. People do things for money.”
Olivia thought of Madison’s face.
Daniel’s smile.
Evan’s covered body.
“Yes,” she said. “They do.”
Sophie touched the gold heart necklace.
“My adoptive mom used to say this was found with me.”
Olivia sat straighter.
“With you?”
Sophie nodded.
“I was two, maybe three. No one was sure. I was found outside a church in Albany during a snowstorm. I had pneumonia. I don’t remember any of it. The necklace was in my coat pocket.”
Olivia’s throat tightened.
“My grandmother’s missing daughter was named Rose?”
“I don’t know.”
“My father might.”
Sophie’s eyes darted toward the closed door.
“Your parents hate that I’m here.”
Olivia did not deny it.
“They’re scared.”
“Of me?”
“Of the truth.”
Sophie looked back at the bookshelves.
“I’m scared of it too.”
Before Olivia could answer, the library door opened.
Charles Bennett entered with a file box in his hands.
Elaine followed behind him, pale and silent.
Behind them came Howard Vale.
Olivia stood instantly.
“What is he doing here?”
Howard looked as though he had not slept. His suit was wrinkled. His face had lost all of its courtroom polish.
“I asked him to come,” Charles said.
Olivia stared at her father.
“After what his daughter did?”
Howard flinched.
Charles set the file box on the table.
“Because his firm handled some of your grandmother’s private legal work years ago.”
Olivia’s jaw tightened.
“And apparently leaked enough of it to Daniel.”
Howard nodded once.
“That appears to be true.”
Sophie pulled the blanket tighter around her shoulders.
Olivia looked at him with disgust.
“Your daughter helped drug someone.”
“My daughter is in custody,” Howard said quietly. “And she will face what she has done.”
“That’s not an answer.”
“No,” Howard said. “It isn’t.”
He reached into his coat and removed a sealed envelope.
Detective Ruiz stepped into the doorway behind him.
“I’ll take that.”
Howard handed it over without argument.
Ruiz inspected it.
“What is this?”
“Something I should have turned over years ago.”
Charles closed his eyes.
Elaine whispered, “Howard, don’t.”
Olivia turned toward her mother.
“Don’t?”
Elaine’s face crumpled.
Olivia’s blood went cold.
“What did you do?”
No one answered.
Sophie looked between them.
Howard spoke first.
“Your grandmother hired me twenty-four years ago to locate her missing daughter. We failed. Or I told her we failed.”
The room froze.
Sophie stopped breathing.
Olivia whispered, “You lied to my grandmother?”
Howard looked at the floor.
“Yes.”
Charles slammed his hand on the desk.
“Damn you.”
Howard did not defend himself.
“She was ill. Frail. Surrounded by relatives who feared the estate would be divided. I was told finding Rose would destroy the family.”
Olivia stared at her parents.
“By whom?”
Elaine began crying.
Charles turned away.
Olivia’s heart hammered.
“By whom?”
Her mother whispered, “Your grandfather.”
The name hit the room like a gunshot.
Olivia’s grandfather had been dead for twelve years.
A portrait of him hung above the fireplace: stern, silver-haired, respectable.
The kind of man whose sins were buried under charity plaques and hospital wings.
Howard said, “He believed Rose was proof of a scandal that could ruin the Bennett name. Your grandmother had the child before marriage. He accepted the rumors when he married her, but he never accepted the child. When she began searching seriously later in life, he interfered.”
Sophie’s eyes filled.
“What happened to Rose?”
Howard’s face tightened.
“That is what I came to tell you.”
Detective Ruiz opened the envelope and removed a stack of copied records.
Birth certificate fragments.
Adoption agency notes.
A private investigator report.
A photograph.
Olivia recognized the woman from Evan’s pocket.
The woman by the lake.
Howard pointed to her.
“Rose Bennett was alive twenty-three years ago.”
Sophie whispered, “Twenty-three?”
Howard nodded.
“She had a daughter.”
The room went completely silent.
Olivia looked at Sophie.
Sophie’s hand clamped over her mouth.
Howard continued, “Rose contacted my office. She wanted to meet her mother. She said she had proof of who she was. She said she had a little girl and wanted nothing except a chance to speak to Evelyn Bennett before it was too late.”
Olivia’s grandmother.
Evelyn.
The strongest woman Olivia had ever known.
The woman who died believing she never found her first child.
“What happened?” Olivia asked.
Howard’s voice broke.
“I told her not to come.”
Sophie’s face turned white.
“I told her the family would never accept her,” he said. “I told her Evelyn was too sick. I told her there was no money. I told her to disappear.”
Elaine sobbed openly now.
Olivia felt rage rise so hot it almost blinded her.
“And she did?”
Howard shook his head.
“No.”
Detective Ruiz looked up from the report.
“She came anyway.”
Howard nodded.
“She came to the Bennett lake house on September 14th. With her daughter.”
Sophie’s voice was barely audible.
“Me?”
Howard looked at her.
“Yes.”
The room seemed to fold inward.
Sophie stood too fast, knocking the blanket to the floor.
“No. No, I don’t remember—”
“You were very young.”
“What happened to my mother?”
Howard closed his eyes.
“That night, there was a fire.”
Olivia’s mother made a sound of grief so raw Olivia turned toward her despite herself.
“A fire?” Olivia whispered.
Howard nodded.
“Rose died.”
Sophie stepped backward.
“No.”
“I’m sorry.”
“No.”
Olivia moved toward her, but Sophie lifted a hand.
“Don’t touch me.”
Olivia stopped.
Sophie looked at Charles.
“At Elaine.”
“At Howard.”
“At the portrait over the fireplace.”
“My mother came here,” she said slowly. “She came to meet her mother. And she died?”
No one answered.
That was answer enough.
Sophie’s tears fell silently.
“Did your family kill her?”
Elaine cried, “No.”
Charles said, “We weren’t there.”
Howard looked down.
Detective Ruiz noticed.
Olivia did too.
“Howard,” Ruiz said, “what aren’t you saying?”
Howard’s shoulders sagged.
“The official report called it an accident.”
“And unofficially?”
He looked toward the window.
Morning sunlight poured across the polished floor, bright and merciless.
“Unofficially,” Howard said, “Rose told me the day before she died that someone had threatened her.”
Sophie’s voice shook.
“Who?”
Howard did not answer.
A phone rang.
Everyone jumped.
It was Sophie’s.
She stared at the unknown number on the screen.
Detective Ruiz held out her hand.
“Don’t answer.”
But Sophie’s thumb moved before anyone could stop her.
She put the phone on speaker.
For three seconds, there was only breathing.
Then a woman’s voice said softly, “Hello, little Rose.”
Sophie’s face collapsed.
Olivia went ice cold.
The woman on the phone continued.
May you like
“You should have eaten the cake.”
Nhắn “tiếp chapter 6–10” để mình viết tiếp phần kế tiếp ngay từ cú gọi “Hello, little Rose.”
