Page 54 of Till Death Do Us Part

“It’s done,” she said. “Elaine is dead.”

“Excellent work. And the body?”

“Things got a bit… tight. I had to dispose of it on the spot.”

She was glassy-eyed and speaking in half-formed thoughts. I folded my arms on the desk, leaning closer. “What happened? You know the consequences for concealing things from me, Vera.”

“We were out. I thought we’d be safer. Full-scale Whitecliff assault, trying to kill me specifically. It was brutal. We escaped, but… I knew we wouldn’t escape from the next one. I had to kill her there. Cut her up and dumped her in the river.”

I narrowed my eyes. “You defeated the purpose of the Whitecliff blade. How are we going to prove she’s dead without incriminating ourselves in the process now?”

She looked down. “I am sorry, Sir. I plan to just… act as the legal executor in her absence to carry on with the project.”

“It’s not like you to be reckless, Vera.”

“I am sorry.”

“I believe this is the first time you have disappointed me. We will have a long talk when you return.”

She nodded. I sat up taller.

“But in the meantime, the job is done. I will see to it that the Horizon plans can begin immediately. You are dismissed, Vera.”

“Thank you, Sir.”

I ended the call, and I shut off the computer, stepping away from the damnable thing and walking away, heading upstairs. I made it up to my office, where the window was streaked with rain, lightning cutting shapes in the midnight-blue sky, and I was there for some time before a knock came from the door.

“Enter.”

I knew who it was from the silence—the door opened and closed in quiet precision, footsteps any lesser man would have missed. I glanced back at Quayle, who sidled up to the window next to me.

“Vera is hiding something,” I said. “We will give her some time to come clean. And if she does not… we’ll pay her a visit.”

He nodded.

Chapter 26

elaine

It took me some time to find the strength to stand up, my head spinning as I did, stumbling across the room and out the door. I was dizzy and my head hurt, but I made it down the hall enough to see Vera in the back garden, sitting at the edge of a rock pond, seemingly oblivious to the rain pouring down over her, lightning strikes in the distance.

I didn’t think. I just went to her.

I raced downstairs and threw myself out the door, and I stumbled over to where she stared into the water.

“Vera—”

“I told Glenn that I killed you.” She didn’t even look up. “I showed him the knife.”

“What are you doing?”

She put a hand to her face, one finger running along her scar. “This spot. This is where I killed my father.”

My heart leaped and crashed down. I sank onto the ground next to her. “Oh, Vera…”

“It was self-defense. I’d failed him for the last time. He was going to kill me. He’d already hit me… so many times. I couldn’t see straight. One of my eyes was swollen shut, and the blood from my forehead kept blocking the other one. It wasn’t that I wasn’t ready to kill him. It was just that… I never thought he could be killed. He was my father. He was invincible.” She squeezed her hands tightly. “But he wasn’t. He died to a single bullet. Like everyone does.”

“I’m so sorry… that he did that to you, Vera.” I pressed myself gingerly to her side, my heart still torn in two about it. She was the woman who saved my life. She was the woman who tried to kill me. She was the woman who didn’t.