Chapter 10 - Emma’s Mother
Emma left the police station without speaking.
Adrian caught up outside.
“Emma.”
She kept walking.
“Emma.”
“Don’t.”
He stopped.
She turned.
“My mother?”
“I don’t know.”
“Rachel said Thomas’s former executive assistant.”
“That doesn’t automatically mean Lydia.”
“There were only two.”
Adrian went silent.
Emma laughed bitterly.
“Right.”
Lydia Carter lived in Richmond.
She had retired after Samuel’s death and rarely discussed the Blackwoods.
Emma had always assumed grief was the reason.
Now she wondered whether it was fear.
She called.
No answer.
Again.
No answer.
Adrian approached carefully.
“Let Daniel send someone.”
“She’s my mother.”
“I know.”
“No, Adrian. You know files.”
The insult landed harder this time.
Emma closed her eyes.
“I’m sorry.”
“You don’t have to be.”
“Yes, I do.”
She looked exhausted.
“I’m angry at you because you lied. I’m angry at Vanessa because she hurt you. I’m angry at Malcolm because he used people. I’m angry at your father because he sacrificed workers. Now I’m supposed to wonder whether my own mother helped kill you?”
“We don’t know that.”
“Then let’s find out.”
They drove to Richmond with Daniel.
Lydia Carter opened the door before they knocked.
She was sixty-two, elegant in a simple blue cardigan, her face so similar to Emma’s that Adrian immediately understood where Emma’s steadiness came from.
Lydia looked at Adrian’s cane.
“So it’s true.”
Emma stared.
“You knew he could walk?”
“No.”
“You don’t look surprised.”
Lydia’s eyes filled.
“I’m surprised he survived long enough to recover.”
Emma went still.
Adrian spoke quietly.
“Mrs. Carter, we need to talk about Robert Vale.”
Lydia closed her eyes.
Then stepped aside.
“I wondered when this would come.”
They sat in the living room.
No lawyers.
No recording devices visible.
Daniel placed his phone on the table.
“May I record?”
Lydia nodded.
Emma stared at her mother.
“What did you do?”
Lydia looked at her daughter.
“I helped Robert get into the service garage.”
Emma’s breath caught.
Adrian did not react.
“Why?”
Lydia’s hands shook.
“Because he told me he had proof Malcolm planned to sabotage Adrian’s car.”
Emma stared.
“What?”
“He said he needed access to stop it.”
Daniel leaned forward.
“How did he know?”
“He was desperate. Malcolm controlled his debts. Robert overheard Rachel discussing Mercer.”
Adrian said, “So Vale went to the garage claiming he would prevent the sabotage.”
“Yes.”
“But he cut the hydraulic line.”
Lydia began crying.
“I didn’t know.”
Emma’s voice was barely audible.
“You gave him access.”
“Yes.”
“Using my credential?”
Lydia looked at her.
Emma’s face changed.
“You cloned my pass?”
“I borrowed your spare card.”
“You used me.”
Lydia sobbed.
“I thought if I used my old credential, Malcolm’s people would notice. Yours was active but you were inside the house. I thought it would protect me.”
Emma stood.
“You framed me.”
“No.”
“You created evidence that pointed to me.”
“I believed no one would investigate because Robert said he was stopping the sabotage.”
Emma stepped away.
Adrian recognized the expression.
It was the same betrayal she had shown him after learning he could walk.
The same wound.
Someone she trusted had decided ignorance was safer for her.
Lydia whispered, “Emma, please.”
“No.”
Adrian closed his eyes.
The pattern had become unbearable.
Thomas hid truth from Adrian.
Adrian hid recovery from Emma.
Lydia hid crimes from Emma.
Everyone claimed protection.
Everyone created damage.
Daniel asked Lydia what happened after the accident.
She wiped her face.
“Robert called me.”
“What did he say?”
“That things had gone too far.”
“Did he admit cutting the line?”
“Not directly.”
“What exactly?”
“He said, ‘Malcolm wanted Adrian weak. I needed him gone.’”
Adrian’s face hardened.
“Why?”
Lydia looked at him.
“Vanessa.”
Adrian stared.
“Explain.”
“Robert believed if you died, Vanessa would inherit money.”
Adrian almost laughed.
“She wasn’t my wife.”
“I know.”
“She wasn’t in my will.”
“He didn’t.”
Emma understood.
“Robert thought she was.”
Lydia nodded.
“Vanessa told him you were revising your estate plan after the engagement.”
Adrian looked sick.
“I was.”
“Would she have inherited?”
“Twenty million and a residence if we married.”
Daniel said, “Robert may have assumed more.”
Lydia continued.
“His debts were crushing him. Malcolm promised to forgive part of them if the incapacity scheme worked. Robert decided death would solve everything faster.”
Emma whispered, “And my mother opened the door.”
Lydia wept.
“Yes.”
Adrian asked, “Did Vanessa know?”
Lydia hesitated.
“I don’t know.”
Emma studied her.
“That means you suspect something.”
“Robert said one sentence after the accident.”
“What?”
Lydia looked at Adrian.
“He said, ‘Vanessa will hate me when she learns what I did.’”
Adrian breathed out slowly.
That suggested Vanessa had not known.
It did not erase what she later did.
But it changed the accident.
Daniel asked, “What about the engagement ring?”
Lydia frowned.
“What ring?”
“Mercer saw the person leaving the garage wearing Vanessa’s ring.”
Lydia’s face changed.
“Oh God.”
Emma stepped closer.
“What?”
Lydia stood and walked to a cabinet.
She removed an old jewelry box.
Inside lay photographs.
One showed Vanessa and Robert Vale at the Blackwood engagement party.
Another showed Vanessa embracing her father.
Robert’s right hand was visible.
On his little finger he wore a large diamond ring.
Not Vanessa’s.
But beside him stood a woman.
Lydia.
Emma’s mother.
And on Lydia’s hand was Vanessa’s engagement ring.
Emma stared.
“Why are you wearing it?”
Lydia covered her mouth.
“I forgot.”
“What?”
“Vanessa asked me to hold it while the jeweler adjusted the inner guard. I put it on my finger so I wouldn’t lose it.”
Adrian’s eyes narrowed.
“When?”
“The night of the charity dinner.”
“The night of the accident?”
Lydia nodded slowly.
Emma looked at her mother.
“You were the woman Mercer saw.”
Lydia began shaking.
“No.”
“You went into the garage.”
“I only opened the door for Robert.”
“You were wearing Vanessa’s ring.”
“Yes.”
Adrian closed his eyes.
For seven months, a clue had pointed toward the wrong woman because the truth was more complicated than any of them imagined.
Then Lydia whispered:
“There’s something else.”
Emma’s voice was cold.
“What else could there possibly be?”
Lydia looked at Adrian.
“Robert didn’t leave the garage alone.”
Adrian stared.
“Who was with him?”
Lydia answered.
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“Malcolm.”
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