Instead, he took the phone from my hand and studied the screen.
Chapter 2
PART 2 - THE MAN WHO NEVER DIED AND THE POISON INSIDE MY MARRIAGE
1,488 words
“The person who sent this message should be dead.”
The cold in my chest returned.
“Everyone keeps saying that,” I said. “Your accident wasn’t an accident. My father-in-law was dead. Now this person is dead too. How many ghosts are involved in my life?”
Tobias looked at me.
“Too many.”
He opened his notebook again and flipped through several pages until he found a name.
My eyes followed his finger.
Dr. Adrian Vale.
I frowned.
“I don’t know him.”
“You do.”
“No, I don’t.”
Tobias looked at me carefully.
“He was your family doctor.”
I felt my stomach tighten.
“My doctor?”
“For almost ten years.”
I shook my head.
“That’s impossible.”
“You forgot him because Garrett wanted you to forget.”
The words struck harder than I expected.
I remembered pieces.
A quiet man with silver hair.
A gentle voice.
A small office filled with books.
But whenever I tried to
picture his face clearly, my thoughts slipped away.
Like trying to hold water in my hands.
“He was the one who prescribed your vitamins,” Tobias said.
I stared at him.
“The vitamins Garrett gave me every morning?”
Tobias nodded.
My hands went numb.
Garrett always smiled when he handed me those small white capsules.
“You work too hard, Rosie.”
“You need something to help your energy.”
“You need to take better care of yourself.”
Three years.
Every morning.
Every single day.
I had trusted him.
I had kissed him afterward.
I had thanked him.
And all that time…
He had been poisoning me.
A terrible realization settled over me.
“He wasn’t trying to kill me quickly,” I whispered.
Tobias said nothing.
“He wanted me alive.”
“Yes.”
“Confused.”
“Yes.”
“Dependent.”
“Yes.”
I covered my face.
Garrett didn’t want my death.
He wanted my life.
But only the version of my life
where I no longer had control over it.
The version where everyone would look at me and see a woman who couldn’t make decisions.
The version where he could step in and become the hero.
The perfect husband.
The loyal man forced to save his unstable wife’s company.
My anger replaced my fear.
“Why now?”
Tobias looked toward the ceiling.
“Because you discovered something.”
“I didn’t.”
“You did. You just don’t remember.”
I froze.
“What are you talking about?”
He reached into his jacket and pulled out a small envelope.
Inside was a photocopy of an old document.
At first, I didn’t understand what I was seeing.
Then I saw the company seal.
My family’s shipyard.
The Baltimore Hawthorne Shipbuilding Company.
My parents’ signature.
And beneath it…
A transfer agreement.
My eyes widened.
“This is fake.”
“No.”
“My parents would never sell part of the company.”
“They didn’t.”
I looked
at him.
“Then what is this?”
Tobias pointed at the bottom.
There was a second signature.
A witness signature.
My father’s closest business partner.
Someone I had known my entire childhood.
Someone who attended my parents’ funeral.
Someone who hugged me and promised to protect me.
“Charles Whitmore,” Tobias said.
The name felt familiar.
“He helped Garrett’s father create the deal.”
I looked up.
“Garrett’s father?”
Tobias nodded.
“Richard Montgomery never died.”
The room became painfully quiet.
“You said everyone believed he was dead.”
“They did.”
“Then where has he been?”
Tobias looked at me.
“Watching.”
The word sent a chill through me.
“Watching what?”
“Watching the company. Watching you. Watching Garrett.”
I stared at the document.
For fifteen years, my family had believed our parents died because of a tragic accident during a storm.
A faulty ship engine.
A terrible explosion.
A moment of bad luck.
But Tobias had spent fifteen years uncovering something else.
Someone had planned everything.
Someone had wanted my parents gone.
Someone had waited until I was old enough to inherit the company.
Then they sent Garrett.
My husband.
The man who held me every night.
The man who told me he loved me.
The man who just left me to drown.
A sound interrupted us.
Footsteps.
Tobias immediately grabbed my arm.
“Turn off the phone.”
“What?”
“Now.”
I obeyed.
The footsteps grew louder.
Someone was walking through the abandoned pier above us.
Slowly.
Carefully.
Like they knew exactly where they were going.
Tobias moved toward the door.
“You said no one knew we survived.”
“No one should.”
“But someone does.”
The footsteps stopped.
Right above us.
A shadow appeared beneath the cracks in the wooden floor.
Then a voice spoke.
“Rosalind.”
I froze.
I knew that voice.
I had heard it thousands of times.
A voice that had comforted me.
A voice that had convinced me I was safe.
“Come out.”
My blood turned cold.
Garrett.
Tobias silently pointed toward the back exit.
We moved slowly.
But before we reached the door, Garrett spoke again.
“You don’t have to hide from me.”
His voice sounded almost sad.
Almost hurt.
“You always were too trusting, Rosie.”
I clenched my fists.
The man who tried to kill me was standing above us pretending to be the victim.
“I know you’re alive.”
Tobias looked at me.
“How?”
I didn’t know.
Then I remembered.
The emergency breathing device.
The hidden tools.
The entire escape.
Garrett had planned everything.
Except Tobias.
Except the person he thought was powerless.
My brother.
Garrett laughed softly.
“Your brother surprised me.”
The sound of my heartbeat filled my ears.
“He was supposed to be the easiest part.”
Tobias’s face changed.
“What does that mean?” I whispered.
He didn’t answer.
Garrett continued.
“For fifteen years, Tobias played the perfect victim.”
A pause.
“But I always wondered if he was pretending.”
The words struck us both.
Tobias looked genuinely confused.
“You knew?”
“I suspected.”
Garrett’s voice became colder.
“That’s why I never touched him.”
My eyes widened.
“You’re lying.”
“No.”
Garrett continued.
“Your brother was useful. Everyone ignored him. Everyone talked around him. Everyone forgot he was in the room.”
Silence.
“People reveal everything when they think someone is helpless.”
Tobias tightened his jaw.
Garrett knew.
Maybe not everything.
But enough.
“You should have stayed in that chair,” Garrett said.
Tobias stepped forward.
I grabbed his arm.
“No.”
He looked at me.
For the first time, I saw the pain behind his eyes.
Fifteen years of pretending.
Fifteen years of watching people underestimate him.
Fifteen years of waiting.
Garrett had taken everything from our family.
And Tobias had been waiting for the right moment to take it back.
A loud crash came from above.
Then another voice spoke.
A woman’s voice.
Penelope.
“Garrett, we need to leave.”
My heart sank.
They were not alone.
Garrett answered calmly.
“Not yet.”
“What about her?”
“She’ll come out.”
I looked at Tobias.
“How?”
He stared at the exit.
“Because he knows where we are.”
A terrifying thought entered my mind.
“How?”
Tobias didn’t respond.
He didn’t need to.
I looked down.
My phone.
The message.
The unknown number.
The warning.
Someone had tracked it.
Someone wanted us to run.
Someone wanted us to lead them somewhere.
I whispered:
“This was never a rescue.”
Tobias looked at me.
“No.”
“It was a trap.”
Before we could move, the door behind us opened.
A man stood there.
Older.
Tall.
Gray hair.
His face was familiar.
Too familiar.
I had seen him in the photograph.
My hands went cold.
Richard Montgomery.
Garrett’s father.
The man who was supposed to be dead.
He looked at me with a strange expression.
Not anger.
Not hatred.
Something worse.
Regret.
“Rosalind.”
I stepped backward.
“You’re dead.”
He smiled faintly.
“That is what everyone was supposed to believe.”
Tobias moved between us.
“You were behind everything.”
Richard looked at him.
“No.”
His eyes shifted toward Tobias.
“You were.”
The accusation hit like a bullet.
I looked at my brother.
“What?”
Tobias stared at Richard.
“Don’t listen to him.”
But Richard continued.
“Your brother knows more than he has told you.”
My heart raced.
“Tobias?”
My brother said nothing.
That silence scared me more than anything.
Richard took a step closer.
“Ask him what happened the night your parents died.”
“Tobias?”
My brother finally spoke.
“Rosalind, I can explain.”
“No.”
My voice shook.
“I want the truth.”
The room seemed to shrink.
Fifteen years of secrets.
Fifteen years of lies.
I looked at the two men standing in front of me.
One was my husband’s father.
A man who had destroyed my family.
The other was my brother.
The person who had saved my life.
The person I trusted most.
But now I didn’t know who I was looking at.
Tobias closed his eyes.
Then he whispered:
“I was there that night.”
My breath stopped.
“What?”
“I saw the explosion.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Because if I told you what I saw…”
He looked at Richard.
“…they would have killed you.”
I felt tears burning my eyes.
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