Chapter 5 - The note Nora hid
There had been a note.
Nora destroyed it.
That admission nearly ended any remaining trust between us.
“What did it say?”
She stared at the floor.
DRINK AT 2:15.
Nothing else.
She found it beside the prepared cup.
Instead of telling me, she threw it away.
“Why?”
“I thought someone was trying to scare me.”
“You thought that and still served me the tea?”
“I replaced it!”
There.
Nora believed the original cup was suspicious.
She poured fresh tea into another cup from the sideboard.
But that second cup was the contaminated one.
Meaning whoever planned this may have anticipated her reaction.
Or the contamination was already on multiple items.
We couldn't assume.
“Why grab Lily?”
“Because she screamed before I understood what she knew.”
“That doesn't explain dragging her.”
“I panicked.”
Her eyes filled.
“I thought she had touched whatever was in the cup.”
Still unacceptable.
But different from deliberately silencing her.
Then Lily told us something important.
She had seen a man near the sideboard.
Not Eleanor.
“When?”
“Before lunch.”
“Did you know him?”
“No.”
“What did he look like?”
“Gray hair.”
That described thousands of men.
“What was he wearing?”
“A blue jacket.”
Better.
Then:
“He called Nora by another name.”
I looked at my partner.
“What name?”
Lily answered:
“Anna.”
Nora went completely still.
My stomach dropped.
“Who is Anna?”
Nora didn't answer.
“Nora.”
“My middle name.”
“No.”
She shook her head.
“Not exactly.”
Then the truth came.
Nora's legal birth name was Anna Nora Blake.
She changed it at twenty-one.
Why?
Her father.
“Who was he?”
She closed her eyes.
“Andrew Mercer.”
The room seemed to tilt.
Claire's missing brother.
The man Eleanor said had resurfaced.
My partner was his daughter.
Meaning Nora was Claire's niece.
Meaning she had entered my life knowing exactly who my dead wife was.
I stepped away from her.
“How long have you known?”
“Since before we met.”
There it was.
The secret beneath every other secret.
“You didn't meet me by accident.”
“No.”
“Why did you come near me?”
Nora started crying.
“To find out what Claire left behind.”
I looked at the torn shoulder of Lily's dress.
At the shattered cup.
At the woman I'd trusted in my home.
“Did you ever love me?”
“Yes.”
I almost laughed.
May you like
Then Nora said:
“And that's exactly why my father wants me dead too.”
