Chapter 10
No one fell on-screen.
No body appeared below the balcony.
No completed police investigation began.
No final explanation behind the missing eight thousand dollars was revealed.
The confrontation ended inside the warm Grand Rapids apartment with the balcony door open, snow blowing across the floor, and Liam Bennett standing between the woman he had locked outside and the sister he had trusted too easily.
Nora was no longer visible.
Only her wedding ring remained in Liam’s hand.
Only the folded cream note waited unopened.
Only one wet handprint marked the balcony railing.
And across the apartment floor, wet shoe prints led from the front hallway toward the balcony.
Shoe prints.
Not Nora’s bare feet.
Gwen stood near the wineglasses in her black dress and pearls, her confident smile gone, her hand shaking around the glass.
Liam looked from the footprints to Gwen’s shoes.
Then to the note.
Then to the sliding door he had locked.
The truth had not fully arrived.
But the lie had begun to break.
Nora had said five words before disappearing from view.
“Ask your sister.”
Now Liam finally did.
Not with trust.
Not with loyalty.
May you like
Not as the little brother Gwen had controlled for years.
But as the husband who understood too late that the woman outside in the snow had left him one ring, one note, and one chance to see who had really betrayed him.
