“Were?”
Margaret enlarged the log.
“From another location.”
A security image appeared.
A woman sat at a computer.
Young.
Blonde.
Elegant.
I recognized her immediately.
“Rebecca?”
Russell’s personal assistant.
She had worked for him for eight years.
She organized his travel.
His medicine deliveries.
His appointments.
She had even sat beside me at the hospital once and held my hand while Russell was in surgery.
“No.”
Margaret opened another file.
Payments.
Encrypted accounts.
Foreign transfers.
“Rebecca wasn’t working alone.”
Russell looked sick.
“For whom?”
Margaret glanced toward the basement behind us.
“Thomas.”
Hayes.
My father.
I felt numb.
“He ordered her to poison Russell?”
“Not exactly.”
Hayes appeared in the doorway.
Blood stained his shirt.
He had followed us.
Claire reached for her gun, but Daniel stopped her.
Hayes said, “Rebecca was supposed to make him weak.”
Russell stared at him.
“Why?”
“So you’d move your assets.”
“To where?”
“Somewhere accessible.”
Margaret laughed bitterly.
“You wanted him frightened enough to consolidate the archive.”
Hayes looked at me.
“And
then I wanted Emily to inherit access.”
My stomach turned.
“Why me?”
“Because Russell trusted you.”
“You used me.”
His expression twisted.
“At first.”
I stepped closer.
“Do not say you loved me.”
He flinched.
“I wasn’t going to.”
That somehow hurt worse.
He continued.
“I didn’t know how to be your father. Margaret disappeared. Russell became untouchable. I spent years imagining revenge.”
“So you arranged for Russell to meet me.”
“Yes.”
“You thought he’d marry me?”
“No.”
A strange smile touched his face.
“I thought he’d investigate you. I thought your resemblance to Margaret would make him curious.”
Russell closed his eyes.
“It did.”
“And then you fell in love with her,” Hayes said.
Russell said nothing.
“That ruined everything.”
I looked at Hayes.
“So your revenge plan failed because Russell loved me?”
“Partly.”
“Then why poison him?”
“Because I discovered what he planned to do with the archive.”
Margaret looked at Russell.
“What did you plan?”
Russell took a slow breath.
“Release it.”
Everyone stared.
“All of it?” Daniel asked.
“Everything that could prove criminal conduct.”
