Chapter 6 - THE FIANCÉE WHO HURT THE MAID FINALLY REVEALED WHAT THE LAWYER CONTROLLED
“Cut before inspection?”
Gabriel studied the photograph.
Sarah reached for it.
The damaged cable hung loosely from a steel support. Even without technical knowledge, she could see something was wrong.
Aaron had died when a section of scaffolding collapsed beneath him.
His employer had told her that several safety components had failed unexpectedly.
Nobody had mentioned a deliberately damaged cable.
Margaret placed another page beside the photograph.
It was a copy of the original inspector's notes.
The inspector had written that the cable showed signs of being cut before the collapse.
But the final safety report described ordinary wear.
“Who changed it?” Gabriel asked.
“Someone higher up,” Margaret answered. “The inspector, Thomas Reed, refused to sign the revised version.”
Sarah looked at Aaron's photograph on the mantel.
She remembered the morning he left for work.
Ethan had been four.
Aaron had crouched beside his son and helped him put on his little blue jacket.
Then he'd kissed Sarah.
“See you tonight.”
Those were his last words to her.
She had spent three years trying not to replay them.
Now those words seemed unbearable.
Gabriel noticed her expression.
“We don't know exactly what happened yet.”
Sarah looked at him.
“But somebody knew the equipment was dangerous.”
“Yes.”
“And somebody buried the report.”
“Yes.”
Sarah wiped her eyes.
“Then I want to know who.”
Gabriel nodded.
“We'll find out through evidence. Not guesses.”
He contacted a retired investigator he trusted, a woman named Rebecca Sloan, who had spent twenty-five years handling financial fraud cases.
She agreed to review the trust records and help preserve the documents properly.
Gabriel also asked an independent attorney to represent Sarah.
He explained that the lawyer would work for Sarah, not the Santoro family.
Sarah accepted on one condition.
“I want to understand every paper before I sign anything.”
“You will.”
Back at the mansion, another confrontation was waiting.
Olivia Hartwell stood in the main sitting room.
Her expensive cream coat lay across a chair.
The diamond engagement ring Gabriel had given her sparkled on her finger.
She smiled when he entered.
“Darling. I've been trying to reach you.”
Gabriel walked past her.
“We need to talk about Sarah.”
Olivia's smile disappeared.
“Really? We're still doing this?”
Gabriel placed a printed photograph on the table.
It showed Olivia pulling Sarah into the corridor.
Olivia stared.
“Where did you get that?”
“An independent camera.”
Her face changed.
Gabriel placed another photograph beside it.
Sarah's swollen cheek.
Her split lip.
Olivia looked away.
“Gabriel, she was listening outside your father's study. Richard said she might steal something.”
“So you assaulted her?”
“I lost my temper.”
“She had trouble breathing when I found her.”
Olivia's eyes filled.
“I didn't mean to hurt her that badly.”
Gabriel stared at the woman he had planned to marry.
“That's your defense?”
“No.”
For the first time, she seemed unable to find a useful lie.
Gabriel sat opposite her.
“Tell me about Richard.”
Olivia slowly removed her engagement ring.
She placed it on the table.
“Two years ago, my mother's assisted-living expenses became more than I could afford. I made a terrible investment. Richard helped cover the losses.”
Gabriel remained silent.
“I signed papers I didn't fully understand. Eventually, he told me I'd helped move money from a charitable account.”
“Did you?”
“Yes.”
“Knowing it was wrong?”
“By the time I understood, I'd already done it.”
Olivia rubbed her forehead.
“Richard had copies of everything. He said he'd report me unless I helped him.”
Gabriel's expression remained hard.
“So you used my house, my staff, and my name.”
“Yes.”
“And Sarah?”
Olivia looked down.
“She saw us taking the black box. Richard said if she talked, he'd make sure the supplemental benefits for her son's treatment were canceled.”
“Could he?”
“He controlled the fund that paid for them.”
Gabriel thought of seven-year-old Ethan lying in a hospital bed.
Olivia's voice dropped.
“Sarah begged me not to hurt her son. I should have stopped.”
“But you hit her instead.”
“Yes.”
Gabriel pushed the ring toward Olivia.
“I can't marry someone who treats another person's fear as a weapon.”
Olivia began crying.
“I did love you.”
“I believe you did.”
That answer seemed to hurt her more than anger would have.
Gabriel stood.
“But loving me didn't stop you from hurting an innocent woman.”
Olivia wiped her face.
“What happens now?”
“You tell the truth to an independent investigator. And you stay away from Sarah and Ethan unless Sarah wants otherwise.”
Olivia hesitated.
“Richard won't allow it.”
“Richard doesn't get to decide.”
“You don't understand,” she whispered.
Gabriel paused.
Olivia reached into her handbag and removed a small leather planner.
Inside were handwritten dates and payments.
Richard had required her to record certain transactions under harmless descriptions.
Gabriel studied the entries.
One payment had been made to a private transportation company shortly before the attempted removal of Ethan from the hospital.
Another was labeled SITE CONSULTING.
Its date was May 2023.
Three days before Aaron's fatal accident.
Gabriel looked up.
“Who received this payment?”
Olivia shook her head.
“Richard used a company name. I didn't know what the payment was for then.”
“What did he tell you later?”
Her hands began shaking.
“He said Aaron Mitchell had caused problems and those problems had been handled.”
Gabriel's expression darkened.
“Did he say he killed Aaron?”
“No. And I won't pretend he did. But after Ethan was admitted to the hospital, Richard told me something.”
“What?”
“He said he couldn't afford to make the same mistake with the boy that he'd made with the father.”
Gabriel closed the planner.
Olivia continued.
“Richard needs control of the trust before the upcoming trustees' vote. He believes that if Sarah loses custody, he can pressure whoever represents Ethan to surrender the claim.”
Gabriel frowned.
“Then he has another problem. Sarah hasn't lost custody.”
Olivia's face turned white.
“Gabriel, that's what I was trying to tell you.”
At that moment, Rebecca Sloan contacted him.
She had checked the financial records and discovered something troubling.
Richard had submitted a complaint accusing Sarah of receiving stolen trust funds in 2017.
The complaint included the forged bank application.
A separate allegation claimed Sarah had neglected Ethan's medical needs.
Child protective services had opened a preliminary investigation.
Gabriel looked at Olivia.
“You knew about this?”
“I knew he was preparing something. I didn't know he'd already filed it.”
At the hospital, Sarah was sitting beside Ethan when two visitors introduced themselves.
One was a state child protection investigator.
The other was a financial crimes detective.
Neither behaved cruelly.
Both explained their responsibilities.
But Sarah understood the danger immediately.
Someone was trying to turn her injuries and her son's medical condition into evidence against her.
Ethan watched her face.
“Mom?”
Sarah turned toward him.
“It's okay, sweetheart.”
“Are we going home?”
She could not answer.
The investigator explained that no custody decision had been made, but the allegations required immediate review.
Sarah asked to speak with her attorney before discussing the bank records.
The investigator agreed.
Then the detective placed a photograph on the table.
It showed a man leaving a Newark bank in August 2017.
A security camera had captured him carrying an envelope.
Sarah recognized the dark hair.
The familiar shoulders.
The wedding band.
Her hand rose to her mouth.
“Aaron?”
The detective nodded.
“We believe your husband withdrew the two hundred thousand dollars.”
Sarah stared.
The detective turned the photograph over.
On the back was a note recovered from the old bank file.
PAYMENT ACCEPTED. FAMILY MATTER CLOSED.
Sarah slowly looked toward her husband's photograph on her phone.
May you like
And for the first time since his death, she asked a question she had never imagined asking.
“Aaron, what did you take that money for?”
