THE HOUSEKEEPER, THE HEIRESS, AND THE WEDDING DRESS

Marcus laughed, a wet, choking sound, keeping his gun pressed under my chin.

"You managed to untie yourself, Elena?" Marcus mocked. "You're not going to shoot me. You don't have the guts."

Elena stepped fully into the library. Her hands were raw and bleeding from the ropes, but her grip on the gun didn't waver.

"You killed my sister, Marcus," Elena said, her voice raspy and broken. "You told me you were just going to scare her. You cut the brake lines."

My heart hammered in my chest. The truth, finally exposed in the light.

"She was going to expose us both!" Marcus yelled back. "I did you a favor! Now put the gun down and help me get the kid, or we both go to prison!"

Elena looked at me, then at the steel door of the panic room. She reached into her pocket with her left hand and pulled out a string of wooden beads.

A rosary.

"Clara was holding this when the car went over," Elena whispered, a tear tracing through the dirt on her cheek. "I pulled it from the wreck before the police arrived. I've carried it for four years, pretending I was her. Pretending I wasn't a monster."

She looked at Marcus. "I'm done running."

BANG.

The gunshot deafened me.

Marcus’s grip on my collar vanished. He slumped backward, dropping his weapon, and collapsed onto the Persian rug.

Elena lowered the gun. She didn't try to run. She simply sank to her knees, placing the gun and the rosary on the floor in front of her.

Seconds later, Nico burst into the room, his weapon drawn. He saw Marcus dead on the floor, me shaking by the panic room, and Elena kneeling in surrender.

Nico lowered his gun, his chest heaving. He looked at the woman wearing his dead wife's face.

"You killed her," Nico said, his voice hollow with grief.

"He killed her," Elena corrected, looking at Marcus. "I just helped him hide it. I'm sorry, Nico. I'm so sorry."

Nico didn't say a word. He walked over to the panic room and punched in the override code.

The steel door opened. Ella peeked out, her eyes wide with fear. When she saw her father, she sprinted into his arms, burying her face in his chest.

Nico held his daughter tighter than I had ever seen him hold anything. He looked over her head, making eye contact with me.

"Are you hurt, Jenna?" he asked.

I shook my head, my legs finally giving out as I sank into the armchair. "I'm okay."

Nico looked down at Elena. "The police are on their way. You're going to tell them everything. And then you are going to spend the rest of your life in a cage."

Elena nodded, offering no resistance.

As the distant wail of sirens pierced the night air, Ella pulled back from her father. She looked at me, sitting exhausted in the chair.

She walked over and wrapped her arms around my neck.