“Pack a bag for the girls,” I said. “Quietly.”
“Gordon will drive you all to the guest house on the north property.”
“What about you,” Nora asked.
“I’m staying here,” I said. “I need to find out how far this goes.”
Nora studied my face.
“Be careful,” she said. “She’s not who she pretends to be.”
“I know that now,” I said.
I walked out into the hallway.
Grace and Amelia looked up at me.
“Is everything okay, Daddy?” Grace asked.
“Everything’s going to be okay,” I said. “I need you both to go with Nora tonight.”
“Somewhere safe.”
“Is Vanessa coming?” Amelia asked.
“No, sweetheart,” I said. “Not tonight.”
“Not ever again, if I have anything to say about it.”
Gordon drove them out through the back service road twenty minutes later.
Headlights off until they hit the county road.
I stood at the window and watched the taillights disappear.
Then I went looking for Vanessa.
She was in the study, pouring a drink.
“Where did they go,” she asked, without turning around.
“Somewhere you can’t reach them,” I said.
She turned slowly.
“You’re overreacting.”
“Am I.”
“Nora’s manipulating you,” Vanessa said. “She’s jealous.”
“Jealous of what.”
“Of me. Of us. Of this life.”
“She’s been telling you stories for years and you never noticed.”
I pulled Eleanor’s old phone out of my pocket.
I set it on the desk between us.
Vanessa’s eyes went straight to it.
Her face lost all its color.
“Where did you get that,” she said.
Her voice had changed.
Quiet. Careful.
“Nora had it,” I said. “Since the week Eleanor d**d.”
“That means nothing.”
“It means you and Eleanor argued about money the night she fell.”
“It means you knew her weeks before I ever met you at that gallery opening.”
Vanessa set her glass down hard.
“You don’t understand any of this,” she said.
“Then explain it to me,” I said. “Right now.”
She was quiet for a long time.
“Eleanor and I grew up together,” she finally said. “Like sisters.”
“When her mother d**d, she inherited everything. I got nothing.”
“My side of the family got cut out generations ago.”
“That’s not my fault,” I said. “It’s not a reason to lie to me for three years.”
“You don’t know what it’s like,” Vanessa said. “Watching someone you love live like a queen while you scrape by.”
“So when Eleanor d**d, I saw a way back in.”
“That’s not a confession,” I said carefully. “That’s a motive.”
Vanessa’s eyes narrowed.
