Chapter 2 - THE NIGHT CAROLINE DIED
Andrew locked the private office door behind Elizabeth and Alex.
He pulled the curtains closed even though they were on the second floor.
Something inside him had changed.
He no longer felt safe inside his own house.
Alex sat on the leather sofa with the stuffed rabbit in his lap.
Elizabeth had quietly retrieved it from the nursery floor.
She had placed the two severed pieces of ribbon beside Andrew’s desk.
Andrew knelt in front of his son.
“You are not in trouble.”
Alex nodded.
“I need you to tell me only what you remember.”
The boy’s eyes moved toward the door.
“Is Aunt Lucinda gone?”
“She cannot come in here.”
Alex looked at Elizabeth.
Elizabeth crouched beside him.
“You can stop whenever you want.”
Alex took a shaky breath.
“The night Mommy died, I couldn’t sleep.”
Andrew felt his stomach tighten.
“I went looking for her.”
Alex stared down at the rabbit.
“I heard Aunt Lucinda talking upstairs.”
“Talking to Caroline?”
Alex nodded.
“They were angry.”
Andrew remembered Lucinda’s statement to police.
She had claimed she was in the downstairs library making a phone call when the railing collapsed.
“What did they say?”
Alex squeezed the rabbit.
“Aunt Lucinda said Mommy had to give something back.”
“What?”
“I don’t know.”
Andrew waited.
“Mommy said it belonged to me.”
A cold sensation moved through Andrew’s chest.
Caroline had handled most of Alex’s trust arrangements after Andrew’s father died.
Andrew’s family fortune included several properties, investment accounts, and controlling shares in Whitmore Medical Technologies.
Lucinda had never held a controlling interest.
Alex eventually would.
“What happened next?”
Alex lifted one hand to his throat.
“Aunt Lucinda grabbed Mommy’s necklace.”
Andrew frowned.
“Which necklace?”
“The green one.”
Andrew immediately looked toward the ribbon on his desk.
Caroline had owned an emerald pendant.
It had been missing after her death.
Police assumed it had fallen somewhere below the balcony.
Search teams never found it.
Alex continued.
“Mommy pushed her away.”
“Then what?”
“Aunt Lucinda took scissors from the sewing basket.”
Andrew’s pulse accelerated.
“What did she do with them?”
Alex shook his head.
“I got scared.”
His voice became smaller.
“I hid behind the curtain.”
Elizabeth gently touched his shoulder.
“You’re safe now.”
Alex continued.
“I saw Mommy run outside.”
“Aunt Lucinda followed her?”
“Yes.”
Andrew could barely force out his next question.
“What did you see?”
Alex’s face crumpled.
“I saw Mommy holding the railing.”
Then he whispered.
“And Aunt Lucinda cut something.”
Andrew stared at him.
“What did she cut?”
“I don’t know.”
Alex began crying silently.
“Then Mommy screamed.”
Andrew pulled his son into his arms.
He did not ask another question.
He did not need to.
The original police report had included one detail that had seemed meaningless at the time.
One of the balcony’s decorative safety cables had been severed.
Investigators had assumed it snapped during the collapse.
Andrew suddenly wondered whether it had been cut before Caroline ever stepped outside.
A knock sounded at the office door.
“Andrew.”
Lucinda’s voice came from the hallway.
“We need to talk before you do something foolish.”
Andrew stood slowly.
He looked at Elizabeth.
“Stay with him.”
Then he opened the drawer beneath his desk.
Inside was Caroline’s old case file.
Andrew had not opened it since the funeral.
He placed it on the desk.
“I think I already did something foolish.”
Elizabeth looked at him.
“What?”
May you like
Andrew stared at the file.
“I stopped asking questions.”
