Chapter 2 - The Woman Named Heather
Edgar stood at the bottom of the staircase without speaking.
Nora had spent ten years learning his expressions.
She knew the small crease that appeared between his eyebrows when he lied about something insignificant.
She knew how he rubbed his thumb against his index finger when nervous.
She knew how his jaw tightened when he felt cornered.
Now he was doing all three.
“Who is Heather?” Nora repeated.
Kristina stepped forward.
“This isn't the time.”
Nora turned slowly.
“You put a rattlesnake in my bed, Kristina. I think we've moved beyond you deciding what time is appropriate.”
Edgar's head snapped toward his mother.
“What?”
For the first time, Nora couldn't tell whether his surprise was real.
Kristina stared at him.
“Edgar, don't.”
“Don't what?”
“Say anything.”
The words escaped too quickly.
Nora saw Edgar's confusion deepen.
That mattered.
Maybe he knew Heather.
Maybe he knew something about the money.
But perhaps he hadn't known about the snake.
She needed facts.
Not assumptions.
Nora took her phone from the coffee table and dialed emergency services.
Kristina lunged forward.
“Wait!”
Nora stepped away.
“No.”
The dispatcher answered.
Nora gave her address and explained there was a rattlesnake concealed in the master bedroom.
She did not mention attempted murder yet.
She wanted professionals inside the house before Kristina could alter anything.
Less than fifteen minutes later, animal control arrived with two Paradise Valley police officers.
Kristina became a different woman the moment uniforms entered the house.
“Oh, thank God,” she said dramatically. “We were terrified.”
Nora nearly laughed.
An officer named Alvarez asked everyone to remain downstairs while the animal-control specialist went upstairs.
Ten minutes later, the specialist returned carrying a secured snake container.
“Adult western diamondback,” he said. “It was under the comforter.”
Officer Alvarez looked at Nora.
“You're saying you saw someone place it there?”
“Yes.”
Nora pointed at Kristina.
“She did.”
Edgar whispered, “Nora…”
Kristina's eyes widened.
“She is confused. She had a migraine.”
“I watched you take it from a cloth bag.”
“That is insane.”
“I heard what you said.”
Kristina's expression hardened.
“What exactly do you think you heard?”
Nora answered without blinking.
“When you die, my son can finally marry a woman who will actually give him children.”
Edgar closed his eyes.
That reaction told Nora everything she needed to know about one part of the story.
Heather was real.
Officer Alvarez separated them.
Nora showed him the hallway security recording. It clearly showed Kristina carrying a moving cloth sack into the bedroom and leaving later with it flattened.
It wasn't proof of everything.
But combined with the snake in the bed, it was enough to make the situation serious.
Kristina was asked to accompany officers for questioning.
As she passed Nora, she whispered, “You have no idea what you've done.”
Nora met her gaze.
“For once, I think I do.”
The door closed behind her.
Edgar remained in the living room.
Nora looked at him.
“Now we talk.”
He rubbed his face.
“Nora, please.”
“Who is Heather?”
His silence stretched.
“She used to work with me.”
“Used to?”
“Yes.”
“When?”
“Three years ago.”
“And?”
Edgar walked toward the window.
Nora followed.
“And what?”
“You know exactly what I'm asking.”
He turned.
“She was someone I got close to.”
The words struck harder than Nora expected.
“Close?”
Edgar looked away.
Nora felt something inside her break.
Not violently.
Quietly.
Like a hairline fracture traveling through glass.
“Did you sleep with her?”
He didn't answer.
“Did you sleep with her?”
“Yes.”
One word.
Ten years of marriage changed shape around it.
Nora sat down.
She had imagined many answers during the previous hour.
Somehow, hearing the truth was worse.
“How long?”
“Six months.”
“When?”
“Two years ago.”
“And the child?”
Edgar stared at her.
Nora's pulse quickened.
“Kristina said Heather had a child.”
“I know.”
“Is it yours?”
“I don't know.”
Nora laughed once.
There was no humor in it.
“You don't know?”
“Heather says he is.”
“A boy?”
Edgar nodded.
“How old?”
“Eighteen months.”
Nora stared at the man she had married.
Eighteen months.
While she had been undergoing fertility treatments.
While she had injected hormones into her own body.
While Edgar had driven her to appointments and held her hand in waiting rooms.
Another woman had been pregnant with a child who might be his.
“Were you with her while I was doing IVF?”
Edgar's face collapsed.
“Nora—”
“Answer.”
“Yes.”
She stood and walked away before she slapped him.
Her hands trembled.
She gripped the back of a chair.
“How long has your mother known?”
“A few months.”
“And she's been talking to Heather?”
“I think so.”
“You think so?”
“I told Mom not to get involved.”
Nora turned.
“And yet somehow she knows about my insurance policy.”
Edgar looked confused.
“What insurance policy?”
“The twenty-five-million-dollar policy I signed two days ago.”
His face changed.
This time Nora watched carefully.
He genuinely looked stunned.
“Twenty-five million?”
“You didn't know?”
“No.”
“You're the beneficiary.”
“I knew you had life insurance. I didn't know you'd increased it.”
Nora believed him.
That frightened her almost as much as if he'd admitted knowing.
Because it suggested Kristina had acted without him.
But why was she so determined to replace Nora with Heather?
“Does Heather know you're still married?”
“Yes.”
“Does she want you?”
Edgar hesitated.
“Answer me.”
“She wanted us to be together.”
“And you?”
“I ended it.”
“When?”
“When she told me she was pregnant.”
Nora stared at him.
“You ended the relationship because she was pregnant?”
“No. Because I realized what I'd done.”
“That's convenient.”
“I was ashamed.”
“You should have been.”
Edgar looked as if she had struck him.
Nora didn't care.
“Have you met the child?”
“Once.”
“Does your mother see him?”
“I don't know.”
Nora's phone buzzed.
Daniel, her attorney.
Call me when safe.
She looked at Edgar.
“Leave.”
His head jerked up.
“Nora—”
“You are not sleeping here tonight.”
“My mother may be arrested.”
“Your mother tried to kill me.”
“I didn't know.”
“And you cheated on me while I was trying to have your child.”
He swallowed.
“Nora, I know I've destroyed everything.”
“Not everything.”
Her voice steadied.
“You've destroyed our marriage. My company, my home, my life—those still belong to me.”
Edgar flinched.
Nora walked to the front door and opened it.
“Go.”
He hesitated.
Then his phone rang.
Heather.
Again.
Nora looked at the screen.
“Answer it.”
“What?”
“Put it on speaker.”
Edgar stared at her.
“Nora—”
“If you want me to believe anything you say tonight, answer.”
Slowly, Edgar touched the screen.
“Heather?”
A woman was crying.
“Edgar, where are you?”
“At home.”
“You need to come here.”
“What happened?”
Heather's breathing shook.
“Your mother was here this afternoon.”
Nora and Edgar exchanged a look.
“What?”
“She came to my apartment.”
“What did she want?”
“She said everything was finally going to be fixed.”
Nora felt cold.
Heather continued.
“She told me you would be free soon.”
Edgar whispered, “Oh, God.”
Heather's voice dropped.
“I thought she meant you were getting divorced.”
Nora stepped closer.
“What else did she say?”
There was silence.
Heather clearly hadn't realized Nora was listening.
“Who is that?”
“Nora,” Edgar said.
Heather stopped breathing for a moment.
Then she whispered, “I'm sorry.”
Nora wasn't interested in apologies yet.
“What else did Kristina say?”
Heather hesitated.
“She said after this week, Edgar wouldn't have to worry about money ever again.”
Edgar gripped the phone.
“What exactly did she tell you?”
“She said Nora had made you rich.”
Nora closed her eyes.
The insurance.
Heather began crying harder.
“I didn't understand. I swear I didn't understand what she meant until tonight.”
“What happened tonight?” Nora asked.
“My apartment door was open when I came home.”
Heather's voice cracked.
“The place had been searched.”
Nora's eyes opened.
“And my son's birth certificate is gone.”
Edgar froze.
Heather continued.
“And there's something else.”
“What?”
“My son had a DNA test six months ago.”
Edgar stared at the phone.
“You never told me.”
“I was afraid.”
“Is he mine?”
Heather began sobbing.
“No.”
Silence filled the room.
Edgar lowered himself onto a chair.
Nora felt confused.
“Then whose child is he?”
Heather's answer came slowly.
“I don't know how to explain this over the phone.”
“Try,” Nora said.
Heather inhaled.
“Edgar isn't the father.”
A long pause.
“But Kristina already knew that.”
Nora's stomach tightened.
“How?”
“Because she paid for the test.”
Edgar stood abruptly.
“What?”
“And she told me never to tell you.”
Nora looked at her husband.
The affair was real.
The betrayal was real.
But something larger was unfolding.
Kristina wasn't simply trying to replace Nora with the mother of Edgar's child.
She knew the boy wasn't Edgar's.
Yet she had still used Heather and the child as justification for murder.
Why?
Nora turned toward the dining room.
The insurance documents were gone.
She had left them there that morning.
Now the table was empty.
“Edgar,” she whispered.
He followed her gaze.
“What?”
“The policy.”
She opened a drawer.
Nothing.
Another drawer.
Nothing.
The documents had disappeared.
Then Nora remembered the exact wording Kristina had used upstairs.
With those twenty-five million, he can start over with Heather Perkinson.
Not “you can start over.”
Not “my son will inherit.”
She had spoken as if the future had already been arranged.
Nora's phone buzzed with an incoming message from an unknown number.
There was no text.
Only a photograph.
Nora opened it.
Her breath stopped.
The image showed Kristina sitting in a restaurant with Heather.
Across from them sat a man Nora recognized immediately.
Her financial advisor.
The man who had recommended the twenty-five-million-dollar policy.
Under the photograph was one sentence:
Ask who really suggested increasing your insurance.
May you like
And for the first time that night, Nora realized Kristina might not have been the person who had started the plan.
She might only have been the person reckless enough to carry it out.
