She Threw Poisoned Hot Coffee at The Millionaire

CHAPTER 4 - THE LAKE AND THE FIRE

"No."

That was all I could say at first.

No to the word brother.

No to my mother lying by silence.

No to the idea that the man in the expensive coat, the man who looked like danger in human form, could belong anywhere near my life.

Dom didn't argue. He stood by the window while rain tapped the glass. Vivian sat at my kitchen table with my mother's letter spread in front of her like evidence at a trial.

Finally, Dom spoke.

"My father had a hunting cabin by Lake Mercer."

The photograph.

The lake.

"He took my mother there every fall," Vivian said, her voice breaking. "Twenty-eight years ago, the cabin burned. Your mother disappeared the same week. My husband claimed she'd stolen cash and jewelry and run away."

"And you believed him?" I asked.

She shut her eyes. "I wanted not to."

Dom turned back toward us. "My father died six years ago. Before he died, he kept asking for a medal. A Saint Christopher medal."

The one in the letter.

"He knew where it was," I said.

"Or what it proved," Dom answered.

We drove to Lake Mercer before dawn.

The cabin was gone, but the stone chimney still stood. Wet weeds pushed up through the old foundation. The lake behind it was gray as steel.

I followed the path from the letter's clue, around the ruined chimney to a flat stone bench blackened long ago by smoke. Underneath, inside a crack, Dom found a small tin box wrapped in rotted cloth.

Inside was a scorched Saint Christopher medal.

And a folded document sealed in plastic.

Vivian opened it with shaking hands.

A birth certificate.

Mine.

Father: Anthony Bozack.

My mother had not stolen proof. She had hidden it.

Then tires crunched on gravel behind us.

Marek stepped out from a sedan, gun in hand, face wrecked with fear.

"I didn't want to poison him," he said. "Your father made me start years ago. Then Dom found out too much."

Dom moved in front of me without thinking.

Marek's hands shook. "The fire wasn't an accident. Anthony set it to get rid of Elena."

And then Marek pointed the gun not at Dom, but at Vivian.