Olivia gasped.

Vanessa’s surname before marriage had been Cross.

Evelyn knew her?

That was impossible.

Vanessa had told Adrian they had never met.

The video continued.

“I confronted our financial manager. He told me I was mistaken. Two hours later, my access to the trust records stopped working.”

Evelyn looked frightened now.

“I have copies.”

She glanced behind her.

“And there’s something else.”

A medical report appeared.

“My blood tests have been abnormal for weeks. I’ve been dizzy. Nauseous. Confused. Doctors blamed the pregnancy.”

Adrian slowly sat down.

“But I had an independent toxicology test performed yesterday.”

Evelyn swallowed.

“They found a sedative in my blood that I was never prescribed.”

Olivia began crying.

Adrian couldn’t move.

Evelyn leaned closer to the camera.

“If something happens to me, do not assume it was natural.”

The video ended.

Silence filled the room.

Then Adrian heard Olivia whisper:

“Dad…”

He looked at his daughter.

She held one of the white pills from the tissue.

His blood turned to ice.

Vanessa had been giving Olivia the same kind of pills.

By morning, detectives had the laptop.

The investigation exploded.

Vanessa refused to speak.

Then she asked for an attorney.

The pills were tested.

They contained a powerful prescription sedative.

The same compound identified in Evelyn’s preserved blood samples.

But detectives quickly found a problem.

Vanessa had not been inside the Mercer home when Evelyn died.

There were travel records proving she had been in Boston.

Worse, Vanessa had not personally accessed the Mercer trust.

The shell corporation connected to her name had been created using stolen identification.

Someone had wanted Evelyn to find Vanessa.

Someone had planted a path.

A false path.

Adrian sat in Detective Mara Bell’s office three days later.

“So Vanessa didn’t drug Evelyn?”

“We don’t know,” Bell said. “She may have been involved indirectly. But there’s something you need to see.”

She placed a photograph on the desk.

It showed Vanessa entering a bank six months before Evelyn’s death.

She was beside a man.

Adrian recognized him immediately.

“No.”

Detective Bell watched his face.

“Who is he?”

Adrian couldn’t speak.

The man was sixty-two.

Silver-haired.

Immaculate.

A person who had sat at Adrian’s dining table hundreds of times.

A man Olivia called Uncle.

A man Evelyn trusted.

Marcus Vale, Adrian’s godfather and the Mercer family’s financial adviser for thirty years.

Bell opened another file.

“Vale controlled the administrative transfers Evelyn discovered.”

Adrian stared at the paperwork.

“He loved my father.”

“He loved access to your father’s money.”

“And Vanessa?”

“We think they were working together.”

“Why?”

“That’s what we’re trying to establish.”

Adrian looked through the glass wall.

Clara sat in the waiting area.

She had agreed to come because detectives needed another statement.

She had not returned to the Mercer house.

Adrian didn’t blame her.

Detective Bell lowered her voice.

“There’s another issue.”

“What?”

“The stroller video.”

Adrian frowned.

“What about it?”

“Vanessa pushed the stroller. That’s clear.”

“I know.”

“But before she did, she received a text.”

Bell placed an enlarged screenshot in front of him.

The security team had enhanced Olivia’s video.

Vanessa’s phone screen was barely visible in a mirror behind her.

But enough remained.

Six words.

DO IT NOW. SHE KNOWS TOO MUCH.