Chapter 6: What Heather Knew
Nora texted back one word: *Where?*
The reply came in under a minute: *Coffee place on Camelback.
Perk & Press.
One hour.*
Daniel wanted to send his paralegal with her.
Nora said no.
She went alone.
Heather was already there when Nora arrived, seated at a corner table with both hands wrapped around a cup she wasn't drinking from.
She looked worse than she had the night before — the kind of worse that comes from a night of no sleep and a morning of hard thinking.
Nora sat down across from her without ordering anything.
"Talk," she said.
Heather looked up.
"I didn't know about the snake.
I want you to know that first."
"I believe you.
Your reaction last night was real." Nora kept her voice even.
"What did you know?"
"I knew about the insurance policy.
Edgar told me two days ago, right after you took it out.
He called me and said—" She stopped.
Pressed her lips together.
"He said it changed the timeline."
"What timeline?"
"The divorce.
He said the original plan was to wait until after the baby was born, file quietly, and offer you a settlement.
But when he saw the policy amount, he called my father."
Nora's hands were flat on the table.
She didn't move them.
"What did your father say?"
Heather's jaw tightened.
"He said a settlement wasn't good enough anymore.
He said Edgar should let his mother handle it and that things would move faster than anyone expected."
"Let his mother handle it," Nora repeated.
"That's the exact phrase Edgar used when he told me." Heather finally took a sip of her coffee.
Her hand was not steady.
"I didn't know what it meant.
I thought it meant Kristina was going to pressure you to sign the divorce papers.
I didn't know—" Her voice dropped.
"I didn't know what she actually did until you said it in the hallway."
"But Edgar knew."
Heather set the cup down.
"He knew my father told Kristina to handle it.
Whether he knew specifically what she planned—" She shook her head.
"I don't know.
I genuinely don't know.
But he knew something was going to happen that night.
He brought me to the house on purpose.
My father told him to."
"Why?"
"Because if you saw us together — me, the pregnancy, all of it — my father thought you'd be too humiliated and too overwhelmed to think clearly.
He thought you'd sign whatever was put in front of you just to make us leave."
Nora looked at her for a long moment.
"You're telling me this," Nora said.
"Why?"
Heather looked down at her stomach.
Then back up.
"Because I'm going to have a baby in ten weeks," she said.
"And last night I stood in your hallway and realized that the people who arranged all of this — my father, Kristina — they don't care about me or this child any more than they care about you.
We're both just pieces." Her eyes were steady now, whatever had been shaking in them the night before gone quiet.
"I'm not doing this for you.
I'm doing it because I'm not going to let my child be born into whatever this is."
Nora said nothing for a moment.
Then: "Do you have anything in writing?
Texts, emails, voicemails?"
"I have fourteen months of texts between me and Edgar.
I have three voicemails from my father that I saved because something felt wrong." She reached into her bag and placed her phone on the table.
"I also have a text from Kristina sent yesterday afternoon that says, and I'm quoting, 'Tonight.
Don't worry about the details.
Just be there when Edgar brings you.
Everything will be resolved by morning.'"
Nora looked at the phone.
"I need you to send all of that to my attorney," she said.
"His name is Daniel Marsh."
"I know who he is." Heather didn't look surprised.
"My father has mentioned him."
"Of course he has." Nora stood up.
She picked up her bag.
Then she paused.
"The baby.
Is Edgar the father?"
Heather met her eyes.
"Yes."
Nora nodded once.
She left without saying anything else.
She was halfway to her car when her phone rang.
It was a number she recognized this time.
Kristina.
She answered.
"I know you think you have something," Kristina said.
Her voice was controlled but there was something underneath it — a tightness that hadn't been there the night before.
"But you should think very carefully before you go to the police.
Edgar is still your husband.
Anything that happens to this family happens to you too."
"Is that a threat?" Nora asked.
"It's a reminder," Kristina said.
"Warren Perkinson is a powerful man.
You've already seen what happens to businesses that make enemies of him.
Imagine what happens to a woman who makes an enemy of him personally."
Nora stopped walking.
"Kristina," she said.
"I have forty-seven seconds of you on camera.
In my bedroom.
With a cloth bag."
The line was silent.
"Think carefully," Nora said, "about who should be worried right now."
She hung up.
May you like
Got in the car.
And called Daniel.
