Chapter 5: The First Wife
The speedboat cut across the dark water.
Cold spray struck my face while Daniel steered toward an island that did not appear on the tourist maps I had seen. Behind us, police lights flickered along the distant shoreline, but they were too far away to stop him.
Vanessa’s words repeated in my mind.
The first woman.
I had known Daniel had been married before.
He told me his first wife, Evelyn, died in a mountain accident six years before we met. According to him, she slipped during a solo hike in Colorado. Her body was never recovered.
He rarely spoke about her.
When I asked, he would stare into the distance and say grief had taught him not to waste time.
That sadness had made me trust him.
Now I wondered whether any part of that story had been true.
“You killed Evelyn,” I said.
Daniel kept his eyes ahead.
Vanessa laughed bitterly.
“He didn’t do it alone.”
Daniel turned sharply.
“Shut up.”
“What difference does it make now?” she snapped. “The police have the recording. Amelia survived. We are finished.”
“We are not finished.”
“You said that at the hotel.”
Daniel released the wheel long enough to strike Vanessa across the face.
Lily gasped.
Vanessa staggered against the railing, then slowly lifted her gun toward him.
Daniel’s hand moved to the pistol tucked into his waistband.
For several seconds, they aimed at each other.
The boat continued speeding through the darkness without anyone steering.
I grabbed Lily and pulled her down.
“Put it away,” Daniel said.
“You put yours away first,” Vanessa replied.
Daniel smiled.
“After everything we’ve done, you still don’t understand who is in charge.”
Vanessa’s face tightened.
“You would have nothing without me.”
“I would have fifteen million dollars without you.”
“And no way to access it.”
Daniel’s smile faded.
That was important.
Vanessa controlled something he needed.
Perhaps offshore accounts, forged documents, or the identity he planned to use after my death.
The boat struck a wave, throwing Vanessa sideways. Daniel seized the opportunity and kicked the gun from her hand.
It slid across the deck and disappeared beneath a bench.
He grabbed Vanessa by the throat.
“You will do exactly what I say until we reach the island.”
“Or what?” she choked. “You’ll kill me like Evelyn?”
He released her.
The silence confirmed more than words could.
Lily squeezed my hand.
I looked around the boat.
A flare gun was mounted beside the emergency supplies. If I could reach it, I might signal the police or distract Daniel long enough to take control.
But the flare gun was near the wheel.
Daniel would see me.
“We’re losing fuel,” Vanessa said.
“We have enough.”
“No, we don’t. The gauge is below a quarter.”
Daniel glanced down.
A curse escaped him.
Someone had damaged the fuel line during the shooting at the warehouse.
The engine began to sputter.
In the distance, a dark shape rose from the sea.
The island.
As we moved closer, I saw the remains of an old stone villa on the cliffs. A narrow dock extended from a small cove.
Daniel reduced speed and guided the boat inside.
The engine died just as we reached the dock.
He ordered us out.
Vanessa retrieved her gun from beneath the bench, but Daniel took it and tucked both weapons into his waistband.
We climbed a steep path toward the villa.
The building looked abandoned. Half the windows were broken, and vines covered the outer walls. Yet when Daniel opened the door, security lights illuminated the interior.
This was not a forgotten ruin.
Someone maintained it.
Inside, modern equipment stood beside antique furniture. There were generators, surveillance monitors, food supplies, water containers, and several packed suitcases.
Daniel had prepared the island as a refuge.
Vanessa looked around.
“You’ve been coming here without me.”
“I plan for every possibility.”
“Except Amelia surviving.”
Daniel struck her again.
This time she fell.
Lily moved toward her, but I held her back.
Daniel opened a locked cabinet and removed passports, cash, and a satellite phone.
Three passports bore his photograph under different names.
Another displayed Vanessa’s face.
He had built an entire life for after my murder.
“What happens now?” I asked.
Daniel glanced at the security screens.
“We leave before sunrise.”
“On what boat?”
“There’s another vessel on the northern side.”
“And Lily?”
He looked at my sister.
“She was never part of the long-term plan.”
Lily’s hand tightened around mine.
I forced myself to remain calm.
“What about me?”
“You were supposed to stay dead.”
He walked toward a desk and opened the laptop.
The fake drive was still inside.
He studied the files.
“The account numbers are incomplete.”
“They were encrypted.”
“Where is the real key?”
“I don’t know.”
Daniel stood so quickly the chair fell backward.
He crossed the room and grabbed my injured shoulder.
White pain exploded through me.
“Where is it?”
“I don’t know!”
“The drive contains copies, not originals. The actual access codes are missing.”
“They were never there.”
He released me.
Vanessa slowly stood.
“She doesn’t have them.”
Daniel turned toward her.
“What?”
Vanessa wiped blood from her lip.
“The codes were never on the blue drive.”
His face changed.
“You told me they were.”
“I told you Amelia had evidence. I never said she had access to the accounts.”
“Then who does?”
Vanessa smiled through the blood.
“I do.”
Daniel stared at her.
For the first time, control slipped completely from his face.
Vanessa continued.
“You thought you were using me to steal from Mercer Coastal. But every transfer required my authorization. Every shell company leads back to an identity I created. Without me, the money might as well not exist.”
Daniel drew one of the pistols.
“Give me the codes.”
“No.”
He pointed the weapon at Lily.
Vanessa looked at my sister, then at me.
Something shifted inside her expression.
Until that moment, I had seen Vanessa only as the woman who had helped my husband plan my murder.
But fear had stripped away her confidence. She knew Daniel intended to kill everyone on the island.
“You won’t shoot Lily,” Vanessa said.
“Why not?”
“Because Amelia is the only person who can access the Mercer family trust. You need her cooperation, and she won’t give it if her sister is dead.”
Daniel tilted his head.
“Then perhaps I should start with you.”
Before he could fire, a loud alarm sounded.
One of the surveillance monitors flashed red.
A boat had entered the island’s eastern waters.
Inspector Marin.
Daniel ran to the screen.
The camera showed a police vessel approaching the cove.
Vanessa lunged for the second gun in his waistband.
They crashed against the desk.
The weapon fired.
Lily screamed.
Vanessa fell.
Blood spread across her side.
Daniel raised the gun again, but I grabbed a brass lamp and struck him across the back of the head.
He collapsed.
The pistol slid beneath the desk.
I reached for it.
Daniel caught my ankle.
He pulled me down hard.
Pain tore through my abdomen.
I cried out and curled around my stomach.
Lily seized the gun.
“Let her go!”
Daniel froze.
My younger sister stood with both hands wrapped around the pistol. Her arms shook violently, but the barrel remained pointed at his chest.
Outside, the alarm continued.
Daniel slowly released my ankle.
“That’s right, Lily,” he said gently. “You’re not a killer.”
“No,” she whispered. “But you are.”
He smiled.
Then the villa lights died.
May you like
A gunshot exploded in the darkness.
And Lily screamed my name.
