THE HOUSE OF STOLEN SHADOWS

Marcus’s silence was the loudest answer I had ever heard.

He adjusted his expensive silk tie, refusing to meet my eyes. "Your father was old, Daniel. He had a bad heart. These things happen."

"Vanessa was his hospice nurse," I said, the pieces locking together in a terrifying picture. "That's how she met him. She saw the bank statements. She saw the ledger. She knew about the trust."

"She just wanted what was best for her son," Marcus countered, stepping between me and the bed. "She needed the money."

"So she killed my father?" My voice shook, but not from fear. It was pure, unadulterated rage.

"She simply adjusted his medication," a voice said from the doorway.

I spun around. Vanessa stood there. She looked nothing like the polished, elegant woman I had married. Her hair was disheveled, her makeup smeared, and she was out on bail.

"Mommy!" Leo cried happily.

Vanessa’s expression softened as she looked at the boy, a twisted, desperate motherly love shining in her eyes. "Hi, baby. Mommy's here."

She looked back at me, her face hardening. "Arthur was going to give two million dollars to a maid, Daniel. A maid! While my son was dying in a hospital bed. My father lost everything because of your father's meddling. That money belonged to us."

"Your father was a thief, Vanessa," I said evenly. "And so are you."

Vanessa reached into her designer coat and pulled out a small, metallic object. It wasn't a gun. It was a digital thumb-drive scanner.

"The trust requires biometric verification from the executor to release the final transfer," Vanessa said, walking toward me. "The bank flagged the wire because your signature didn't match the digital key. I need your thumbprint, Daniel. Right now."

"Or what?" I challenged. "You'll kill me in a hospital room?"

Vanessa glanced at Marcus. The lawyer nodded, stepping toward the door to lock it.

"If you don't press your thumb to this scanner," Vanessa whispered, "Marcus makes one phone call, and the nurse at your house—the one who works for Marcus's firm—will inject your mother with the same cocktail I gave your father. She’ll just slip away in her sleep."

My blood ran cold. The paramedics had checked Mom. But after they left, I had called a private nursing service to sit with her while I went to the bank. I had used the agency Marcus had recommended to us years ago.

I had invited the killer back into my home.

"You have two minutes, Daniel," Vanessa said, holding up the scanner. "Give me the money, or your mother dies."

I looked at the glowing green glass of the scanner.

Then I looked at the little boy in the bed, clutching my father's rosary.

"Okay," I said, raising my hand. "You win."