Chapter 19 - THE THREAT
Elise did not run from it.
"I sent the text."
"Why?"
"I was terrified Rosa would play the voicemail before I could get Vivian out."
Rosa frowned.
"Get her out?"
Elise explained.
After Thomas told her Vivian might still be alive, she had tried to arrange a secret medical transfer from the funeral home.
She contacted a private ambulance service.
Then Thomas found out.
He threatened her children.
So Elise stopped.
"But I thought if the voicemail disappeared, Dad would calm down."
"You threatened to put me in a coffin to calm him down?"
"I wasn't thinking."
"No," Rosa said. "You were thinking exactly like him."
That landed.
"You're right."
She admitted the threat to Brooks and accepted charges related to obstruction and intimidation.
Vivian did not defend her.
That surprised everyone except Rosa.
Weeks passed.
Vivian learned to walk again.
First three steps.
Then twelve.
Then the length of the hospital corridor.
Grant stayed every night.
Rosa returned to the Holloway house only once.
To pack Vivian's things.
The mansion felt different.
Quiet.
Not elegant.
Empty.
She entered Vivian's bedroom and found the dress that had been chosen for the funeral hanging behind the door.
Then she heard a sound behind her.
Tap.
Tap.
Tap.
Rosa spun around.
Nothing.
Then she laughed.
A branch against the window.
She sat on the bed and cried harder than she had at the funeral.
Vivian found her there an hour later, leaning on a cane.
"You shouldn't be here alone," Rosa said.
"Neither should you."
They sat together.
"I'm selling the house."
"Why?"
"I don't want to wake up every morning in the place where they turned my bedroom into a crime scene."
Grant appeared in the doorway.
"We found something smaller."
Vivian handed her an envelope.
"If that's money—"
"It's not."
Inside was a job offer.
Director of Household Operations for the Holloway Foundation.
Salary.
Benefits.
Authority over safety procedures.
"I break one coffin and get promoted?"
For the first time, the sound felt normal.
Then Grant's phone buzzed.
May you like
A court alert.
Guilty on every count.
