The Red Wine Before the Vows

Patricia's hand remained on the doorknob.

Nobody moved.

I could hear Olivia crying through the phone, her sobs breaking apart beneath the sound of traffic in the background.

“Emily,” she whispered, “don't let Patricia leave.””

Patricia turned toward me.

“Your sister is unstable. She has been under considerable pressure, and she has a history of making terrible decisions.””

I tightened my grip on the phone.

“Funny. You always describe people as unstable when they know something you don't want them to say.””

Patricia straightened her jacket.

“I'm leaving.””

Ryan moved between her and the door.

“No, Mother.””

She stared at him.

“You would physically restrain your own mother?””

“I'm asking you to stay until the police arrive.””

A small, humorless smile appeared on her face.

“Police? And what exactly will you tell them? That your fiancée's mother died under suspicious circumstances three years ago? That you waited three years to mention it?””

Ryan's face went pale.

Patricia looked at me.

“Your fiancé is not the hero you want him to be, Emily. He was there that night. He left Margaret alone.

He concealed what happened. And now, conveniently, he has a flash drive he claims contains evidence against his father.””

She extended her hand.

“Ask yourself why he has chosen today to become a martyr.””

I looked at Ryan.

He didn't defend himself.

That frightened me more than anything Patricia could have said.

I turned back to the phone.

“Olivia, tell me what happened.””

For several seconds, there was only crying.

Then my sister began to speak.

“I went to the hospital because Ryan called me. He said Mom had asked for me.””

“Why didn't he tell me?””

“Because he knew you would come, too. He said she was exhausted and didn't want you upset before your final exams.””

I closed my eyes.

Three years earlier, I had been finishing a professional certification while my mother underwent treatment. I'd spent every spare hour at the hospital, convinced that if I worked hard enough and prayed hard enough, I could somehow keep her alive.

Olivia had told me Margaret was sleeping when I arrived late that evening.

I'd believed her.

“Go on,” I whispered.

“When I got there, Ryan was outside the room. He looked terrified. He told me not to go in because Mom was having a medical emergency.””

“What did you do?””

“I went inside anyway.””

Olivia's voice cracked.

“She was still breathing, Emily. Barely. She was trying to reach for something on the bedside table.””

My stomach clenched.

“What?””

“A little silver key.””

I looked at the wooden box I'd found in my apartment.

The brass key lay beside it.

“What happened to the key?””

“I took it.””

I stared at the phone.

“You stole something from Mom while she was dying?””

“I thought it was important! Ryan said the key belonged to a safety deposit box. He said Mom had been keeping documents that could ruin his father, and he begged me to help him protect them.””

“Protect them from whom?””

“Patricia.””

I glanced toward the woman standing by the door.

Patricia's expression had become unreadable.

Olivia continued.

“I left the room to find a nurse. When I came back, Patricia was there. She was standing beside Mom's bed, holding a pillow.””

Helen made a strangled sound.

I felt the floor shift beneath my feet.

“A pillow?”” I whispered.

“I didn't see what she did with it. I swear. I was in the doorway. She turned when she heard me, and she told me Mom had stopped breathing.””

I couldn't speak.

“Did you call the police?””

“No.””

“Did you tell anyone?””

“No.””

“Why?””

Olivia sobbed.

“Because Patricia told me Mom was already dead. She said if I accused her, she would tell the police about the transfers I had approved. She said I would go to prison, and you'd lose everything. She said Ryan would testify that I had taken money from the foundation.””

I pressed my free hand against my mouth.

“Did you believe her?””

“I didn't know what to believe.””

“You saw her standing over Mom with a pillow!””

“I was twenty-four, Emily! I was terrified!””

“And I was her daughter!””

The words rang through the room.

Olivia fell silent.

I wanted to hate her.

Part of me did.

But I could hear the panic in her breathing, and I remembered the way she'd looked at our mother's coffin, her face swollen from crying. I remembered holding her hand at the funeral.

All that time, she had been carrying this secret.

And she'd let me grieve without knowing what might really have happened.

“Where is the key now?”” I asked.

“I gave it to Patricia.””

Ryan's head snapped up.

“When?””

“The morning after the funeral.””

“You told me you never found it,” he said.

“I lied.””

Patricia gave a sharp laugh.

“This is an extraordinary performance.””

I turned toward her.

“Did you kill my mother?””

“No.””

“Did you enter her room that night?””

Patricia's silence lasted a fraction too long.

Ryan took a step forward.

“Mother.””

She glared at him.

“Your father was trying to prevent Margaret from destroying the foundation. He went to the hospital to persuade her to reconsider. Things became heated, and she suffered a medical crisis.””

“A medical crisis?”” I repeated.

Patricia ignored me.

“Ryan panicked. Olivia panicked. Everyone made mistakes.””

“What did you do with the pillow?”” I asked.

Her face hardened.

“You have no proof I touched it.””

The admission landed like a stone.

She hadn't denied being there.

She hadn't denied knowing about the pillow.

She had only denied that I could prove anything.

I ended the call with Olivia and dialed emergency services.

Patricia lunged toward me.

Ryan caught her arm.

“Don't touch her!””

She twisted free.

“You ungrateful boy! Everything you have belongs to this family!””

“Not anymore.””

He raised the flash drive.

“I'm sending the records to the authorities.””

Patricia stared at him.

“You'll regret this.””

“Maybe.””

“You think Emily will forgive you because you finally told the truth? You think she will marry you now?””

Ryan looked at me.

“No,” he said quietly.

“I don't.””

For the first time, I saw no attempt to manipulate my answer.

He understood that the damage was done.

The door opened, and Dr. Whitaker returned with two facility employees. He had heard the shouting and called security.

Patricia immediately straightened.

“This is a private family dispute. Please ask everyone to leave.””

Dr. Whitaker looked at me.

“Are you all right?””

“No,” I said.

“But I'm done pretending I am.””

I told him about the recording, Olivia's confession, and the hospital visit. He listened without interrupting, then asked the staff to contact the police.

Patricia's face turned white.

“You cannot be serious.””

Dr. Whitaker met her gaze.

“Three years ago, I signed a death certificate based on information supplied to me by hospital staff. If that information was falsified, I have a professional obligation to investigate.””

Patricia looked at Ryan.

“You have destroyed us.””

He shook his head.

“No, Mother. We did that ourselves.””

A few minutes later, Helen asked to speak to me alone.

I sat beside her bed while Claire waited outside.

Helen's hands trembled as she reached for mine.

“Emily, there's something else you must know.””

I was exhausted. My wedding dress was ruined, my family was fractured, and the man I had planned to marry had just admitted he concealed the circumstances of my mother's death.

Still, I listened.

“The pillow wasn't the only thing Patricia took from that room,” Helen whispered.

“What else?””

“The original trust agreement.””

I stared at her.

“Why would she take it?””

“Because Margaret had written something in the margins. Something that could prove the foundation's controlling rights had already passed to you.””

I remembered the supplemental agreement.

The attempt to transfer my voting rights to Ryan.

The billions of dollars.

“What did the note say?””

Helen closed her eyes.

“I never saw the original. But Margaret told me she had added a condition. The foundation could never be controlled by the Hayes family again unless the rightful beneficiary voluntarily transferred those rights.””

I swallowed.

“So the agreement they wanted me to sign—”

“Was designed to make it look as though you had voluntarily surrendered your rights.””

My hands curled into fists.

“They wanted me to sign away everything without knowing what it was.””

“Yes.””

“And Ryan knew?””

Helen looked toward the doorway.

“He knew enough to be afraid.””

A nurse entered carrying a small envelope.

“Dr. Whitaker asked me to bring this to you,” she said.

Helen stared at it.

Then she began to cry.

“Where did you find that?””

The nurse explained that it had been stored among Helen's personal effects when she was transferred to the facility. It had recently been discovered during a routine inventory.

The envelope was addressed to me.

My mother's handwriting covered the front.

For Emily, when she finally meets Helen.

I opened it with shaking hands.

Inside was a short letter.

My darling girl,

If Helen is alive and you are reading this, then the people I feared have failed to keep you apart.

There is one thing I need you to understand. Helen did not abandon you. I asked her to let me raise you because I believed I could protect you from the Hayes family. I loved you as my own, and nothing in the world could ever change that.

But there is a reason they have spent so long hiding the truth.

The foundation is not simply a business. Its original research contains evidence of a crime that could send several powerful people to prison.

And one of those people is not Richard Hayes.

I stopped reading.

Beneath the letter was a folded photograph.

It showed a much younger Patricia standing beside a hospital bed.

Beside her was a man I recognized from the newspaper photographs of the Hayes family.

Richard's younger brother, Michael.

On the back, my mother had written a date.

The date of my birth.

And underneath it:

Ask Patricia what happened to Michael.