Chapter 12
Claire Mercer was Marcus’s older sister.
Or she had been.
He barely remembered her.
Victoria told him Claire died when he was five.
A riding accident.
A tragedy too painful to discuss.
Arthur’s letter said otherwise.
Claire had been seventeen when she discovered Victoria forging trust amendments.
She planned to tell Arthur.
Then disappeared.
Victoria claimed the horse threw her.
There was no body.
No funeral open to the family.
Just another closed casket.
Marcus read the letter three times.
“No.”
Arthur, still weak, whispered, “I searched.”
Marcus looked at him.
“You knew?”
“I suspected. Then your mother had me declared incompetent.”
My heart twisted.
Victoria had practiced.
First Claire.
Then Arthur.
Then me.
Detective Stone reopened Claire’s case immediately.
Caleb remembered the night.
“Mrs. Mercer ordered the east stables locked. Said Miss Claire had been taken to hospital. No ambulance came through the front gate.”
Old staff were contacted.
Most were afraid.
One was dying and done with fear.
Her name was Agnes.
She had been Claire’s nanny.
She told Detective Stone that Claire had left a diary hidden in the nursery.
The nursery.
The room Victoria had prepared for my baby.
Marcus and I returned to the estate with police.
I did not want to enter that house again.
But I walked in because fear had already taken enough rooms.
Behind faded wallpaper in the nursery closet, we found a small book.
Claire’s diary.
The final entry read:
Mother says Mercer women either obey or vanish. If I vanish, look beneath the rose garden.
May you like
Marcus closed his eyes.
The rose garden was where Victoria had wanted to host my baby shower.
