CHAPTER 16: AFTER THE GARDEN

Emma found Damien in his study, working through files on Richard's business dealings. He looked up when she entered, already knowing something was wrong by the way she was breathing.

"What happened?" he asked.

She told him everything. Claire's confession about being there the night Katherine died. The obsession. The threat. The smile that had nothing behind it.

Damien listened without interrupting. When she finished, he closed his laptop slowly.

"She's going to run," he said.

"What?"

"Claire knows we have the recording. She knows we've figured out she was there. She's going to disappear before we can do anything about it."

He stood and grabbed his jacket.

"Where are you going?" Emma asked.

"To Richard's house. Tonight. We're going to make him listen to that recording and we're going to watch his face when he realizes it's over."

"Damien, that's dangerous. We should call the police. We should—"

"Should what?" Damien interrupted. "Wait? Give them time to escape? Richard has connections. He has lawyers. He has twenty years of planning behind him. If we don't move now, he disappears."

Emma grabbed his arm. "Then let me come with you."

"No."

"Damien—"

"No," he repeated. "You stay here. You lock the doors. You don't answer for anyone."

"I'm not staying behind—"

The sound of breaking glass came from somewhere downstairs.

They both froze.

Damien moved immediately toward the door, but Emma grabbed him.

"Call the police," she whispered.

He was already on his phone, dialing. His voice was calm when he spoke to the dispatcher, but his hand was shaking.

"Someone's broken into my house. My address is..." He gave the information, his eyes never leaving the hallway.

"They're ten minutes away," he said after hanging up.

"We need to get out of here," Emma said.

They moved toward the bedroom. Emma grabbed the necklace from the dresser instinctively. Damien pulled her toward the balcony.

"We can't jump," Emma said. "It's too high."

"The guest house," Damien said. "We go through the servants' corridor to the guest house. Richard won't expect that."

They ran.

The corridor was dark. Behind them, they could hear footsteps. The sound of drawers opening. Someone searching.

The guest house was separate from the main manor, connected by a covered walkway. They made it halfway across when the lights came on.

Claire stood at the other end of the walkway.

She was holding a gun.

"You can't leave," she said. Her voice was eerily calm. "Not with the necklace. Not with the recording. You can't leave with the proof."

Damien stepped in front of Emma.

"Claire, put the gun down," he said. His voice was steady but Emma could feel him shaking.

"I told you," Claire said. "I told you if you betrayed me, everything would change."

"I'm not betraying you. I'm trying to protect you. The recording proves you were trying to help Katherine. The audio shows you told Richard to stop."

"It also shows I did nothing," Claire said. Her eyes were wet but her hand was steady on the gun. "It shows I was a coward. It shows I let her die."

"You were twelve years old," Damien said.

"So was I when I decided to stay silent," Claire replied. "So was I when I decided to protect Richard instead of telling the truth. So was I when I decided that keeping you safe meant keeping a murderer free."

The sirens were getting closer.

"You can still fix this," Damien said. "You can tell the police what happened. You can testify. You can—"

"I can go to prison," Claire interrupted. "For obstruction. For accessory after the fact. For twenty years of helping hide a crime."

She raised the gun slightly.

"No," Damien said. He moved toward her.

"Don't," Claire warned.

But he kept moving. One step. Two steps.

"Damien, stop," Emma whispered.

He didn't stop.

When he was close enough, Claire's hand wavered. Just for a moment. Just long enough for Damien to reach her.

The gun fell.

Damien pulled Claire into his arms and she collapsed against him, sobbing. Not the controlled tears from the garden. Real, broken sobs. The sound of someone who'd been holding it together for too long.

The sirens grew louder.

Emma stood there clutching the necklace, watching Damien hold the woman who'd been obsessed with him for twenty years. The woman who'd killed for him, metaphorically. The woman who might have killed for him literally if circumstances had been different.

The police arrived within minutes.

They flooded the manor and the grounds. Officers everywhere. Questions everywhere. The recording was seized as evidence. The gun was bagged and labeled.

And Claire was led away in handcuffs, still sobbing, while Damien watched with an expression Emma couldn't read.

When the police finally left and it was just the two of them again, Damien sat on the edge of the bed like someone had removed all his bones.

"I grew up with her," he said quietly. "She was always there. Always kind. Always present."

"She was obsessed," Emma said.

"I know," Damien replied. "But part of me understood it. Part of me was grateful for it. Because I was broken and she loved me anyway."

Emma sat beside him.

"She still is broken," Emma said. "What she did, keeping that secret, it destroyed her."

"And now the truth is going to destroy the rest of her," Damien said. "She's going to prison. Her life is over."

"Her life was over a long time ago," Emma said quietly. "When she decided to stay silent about Katherine."

Damien didn't respond. He just stared at nothing, understanding finally that the people who loved you could hurt you in ways you never anticipated. That obsession wore the face of friendship. That protection could be a weapon.

The police still needed to find Richard.

But that would come tomorrow.

Tonight, there was just the silence of a house that had finally given up its secrets.

And two people sitting in the dark, understanding that nothing would ever be the same.