“Okay,” she whispered, cutting her fingers through her hair.
“You inherit everything.”
Her mind blanked. “I—What? No. That’s… What?”
“There was a clause in Henry Alder’s will. If his nephew—the primary heir—was found to have had anything to do with Henry’s death, then everything goes to you.”
Her breath caught. “And…hehadsomething to do with it?”
“Yes.” The attorney’s heavy sigh drifted through the phone speaker. “A security agent for Black Heart Security by the name of Carson Malone contacted the authorities with a request for Henry’s medical records to be reopened.”
Gabe stilled. Felicity’s mind whirled. “Go on.”
“The request was made based on the suspicion that Henry Alder’s death was not the result of natural causes.”
She sucked in a breath through her nose and held it until some of the intensity of the moment ebbed. “I’m listening,” was all she could manage to say through her thickened throat.
Mr. Klein continued. “Some…strings, you could say…were pulled to have the records examined, and it resulted in Andrew’s arrest.”
She gasped, and Gabe slowed the truck, guiding it over to the side of the highway. He flipped on his hazard lights and put the truck in park.
The attorney continued. “Everything happened quickly, Ms. St. James. Andrew confessed almost immediately. The DA contacted me this morning. The nephew made a deal—one of the fastest I’ve ever seen. In exchange for avoiding a media spectacle and significant legal exposure, he pled guilty to murder.”
She pressed her hand to her mouth, a sound escaping that she didn’t recognize. Not a sob. Not relief. Something crushed in the middle.
“Those strings I mentioned being pulled?” Klein went on. “The DA pushed through an expedited toxicology analysis from a private lab. We have confirmation that Henry Alder was being poisoned slowly and intentionally. By his nephew.”
The world seemed to tilt to the side.
She squeezed her eyes shut, but it didn’t shut out the ache in her chest. “I can’t believe this. I can’t—he trusted him. Heraisedhim after his mom died.”
“I’m sorry, Ms. St. James. Truly. But the good news—such as it is—is that everything Henry intended for you is now protected. The property, the bonds. The trust. And a substantial amount of money. Everything.”
Everything.
It felt too heavy a word to hold in her mind for very long.
When the call ended, she stared down at the phone in her hand, numb.
Gabe’s hand covered hers. “Talk to me.”
She turned to him, words jamming in her throat. “I can’t stop thinking…if I’d opened the box sooner… If I hadn’t waited—”
He shook his head immediately. “No.”
“It’s true. If I’d acted faster—”
“Felicity.” His voice cut through her spiral. “There wasn’t anything you could have done if you’d known he was dying sooner. He saw doctors—they found nothing. What’s important is that you honored him by bringing the truth to light. By helping take down the man who hurt him.”
Her lip trembled. “Oh Gabe. It’s so horrible.”
He squeezed her hand and leaned over to wrap his other arm around her, drawing her face against the comfort of his chiseled chest. She gulped in his cedar scent.
“You gave him justice, bookshop.”
She let out a broken sound and leaned into him, his touch grounding her, his voice an anchor to the present instead of everything she couldn’t change.
When she could breathe again, she turned her mouth into his and let him offer comfort through the brush of his lips.
