Chapter 6 - The Maid's Room
"Those aren't mine."
Sarah's voice shook.
The officer read the label again.
"Sarah Bennett."
"I don't take sedatives."
Victoria crossed her arms. "Of course she'd say that."
Ethan turned on her.
"Why are you still here?"
"My attorney told me not to leave the property until I retrieve my belongings."
"Then stand somewhere else."
Nathan examined the bottle.
"Pharmacy number is local."
He called.
Five minutes later, his expression changed.
"The prescription was filled yesterday."
Sarah laughed in disbelief. "I worked here all day yesterday."
"Pharmacy has pickup video."
Police requested it.
The footage arrived within an hour.
A woman in a baseball cap picked up the medication using Sarah's employee ID.
The camera angle did not show her face clearly.
But it showed her wrist.
A pearl bracelet.
Victoria stopped moving.
Sarah looked at the bare place on Victoria's wrist where her bracelet had broken earlier.
Ethan saw it too.
"Interesting."
Victoria snapped, "Thousands of women own pearls."
"Not thousands with my housekeeper's stolen ID."
"I didn't steal anything."
Then the officer searching the room found something under Sarah's mattress.
An envelope.
Addressed to Ethan.
In Caroline's handwriting.
Sarah stopped breathing.
"I swear I didn't put that there."
Ethan opened it.
Inside was a single page.
Ethan,
If Sarah is the person who gives you this, believe her.
If she isn't, ask why someone needed to hide it.
Collins has access to more than your calendar. I saw him meeting Victoria Vale twice. Victoria used to work for my father's foundation under another name.
Do not marry her until Nathan checks the old Mercer settlement.
Ethan looked at Victoria.
"What settlement?"
For the first time, she seemed truly frightened.
Nathan whispered, "I know what she's talking about."
Everyone turned.
"Fifteen years ago, Mercer Industries paid a confidential settlement after a laboratory accident."
"To who?"
Nathan looked at Victoria.
"To the family of a technician named Robert Vale."
Victoria's father.
Ethan stared at her.
"You didn't meet me at that charity dinner by accident."
Victoria's eyes filled with something colder than tears.
"No."
May you like
Then she smiled.
"I spent fifteen years making sure you would eventually open the door yourself."
