Chapter 6 - Bianca’s Version
Bianca returned to Cedar Hollow under a temporary agreement allowing her to collect personal belongings from the house.
Her attorney waited outside.
Ethan waited inside.
Owen was still with Nora.
Bianca entered the kitchen and stopped when she saw Ethan.
“You’re not supposed to interfere with me.”
“I’m not.”
She walked past him.
Her face looked different without makeup.
Tired.
Human.
That irritated Ethan.
He wanted her to look like someone capable of hitting a child.
Not the woman who had sat beside Owen through pneumonia.
Not the woman who learned how to make Laura’s terrible cinnamon pancakes because Owen missed them.
Not the woman Ethan had trusted enough to marry.
“You asked the court to stop us opening Laura’s box at the bank.”
Bianca kept folding clothes into a suitcase.
“It contains business records.”
“You don’t know that.”
“I know Laura.”
“You knew Laura.”
Bianca stopped.
“I knew her better than you did during those last two years.”
Ethan’s face hardened.
“You might want to be careful.”
“No.”
She looked at him.
“For once, you be careful.”
Silence.
Bianca opened a drawer and removed a folder.
She put it on the bed.
Inside was a draft equity agreement.
Laura’s name.
Bianca’s name.
Fifteen percent of Sutton Stables Operating Company.
Never signed.
“She promised me this.”
“I know.”
“You know now.”
Ethan looked at the papers.
“She never promised you the land.”
“No.”
The answer surprised him.
Bianca’s eyes filled.
“I never said she did.”
“You tried to take the metal box.”
“Because I knew what was in it.”
“How?”
Bianca sat on the edge of the bed.
“Laura and I had a horrible fight six weeks before she died.”
“About ownership.”
“About everything.”
She looked at the folder.
“I told her I gave my twenties and thirties to Cedar Hollow. I told her she used me.”
“Did she?”
“Sometimes.”
Bianca wiped her cheek angrily.
“She paid me well. She trusted me with every emergency. She called me family. But when I asked for equity, suddenly I was staff.”
“What did she say about the box?”
“She said, ‘If you ever try to take what’s Owen’s, I have enough in that metal box to ruin you.’”
Ethan felt cold.
“And after she died?”
“I searched for it.”
“So you knew.”
“Yes.”
“And when Owen found it?”
“I panicked.”
“You slapped him.”
Bianca looked down.
“Yes.”
“Say it properly.”
Her eyes lifted.
“I hit your son.”
“Our son, according to you two minutes ago.”
She flinched.
Ethan continued.
“You don’t get to call yourself his mother when it makes you sympathetic and call him my son when you admit what you did.”
Tears ran down Bianca’s face.
“You’re right.”
Ethan had expected defense.
Her agreement disturbed him.
“I loved him.”
“Then why?”
“Because that box could destroy everything I have.”
“That’s your answer?”
“It’s the truth.”
She stood.
“I grew up with nothing, Ethan. Nothing. Cedar Hollow was the first place where I mattered. Laura could threaten to fire me and still wake up owning twenty-eight acres. I could work twice as hard and wake up owning a truck with a bad transmission.”
“That is not Owen’s fault.”
“I know.”
“You married me.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
Bianca went silent.
Ethan felt his heart beating harder.
“Why?”
“Because I loved you.”
He stared.
“And because?”
Her face collapsed.
“Because I was terrified Marcus would throw me out once the grief ended.”
There it was.
Love and calculation in the same sentence.
Not a clean betrayal.
Something worse.
Something believable.
“I did love you,” she whispered. “I still do.”
Ethan stepped back.
“I don’t know what that word means from you anymore.”
Bianca lifted her suitcase.
Before leaving, she stopped.
“Marcus is not saving the company for the employees.”
“What does that mean?”
“He needs the Greystone sale more than anyone.”
“Why?”
“I don’t know all of it.”
“You expect me to believe that?”
“He kept finances separate.”
“You worked with him.”
“Yes.”
“How closely?”
Bianca hesitated.
“After Laura died, we formed a consulting agreement.”
“For what?”
“My buyout.”
“From what?”
“The equity Laura promised me.”
“You didn’t own equity.”
“I know.”
Ethan stared at her.
“So Marcus promised to pay you anyway.”
“Two point two million dollars if the property sold.”
Ethan felt sick.
“You were going to receive a success fee.”
“I considered it compensation.”
“For helping sell Owen’s inheritance.”
“I didn’t believe the trust was valid.”
“Why?”
Bianca looked toward the floor.
“Because I delivered Laura’s revocation to Paul Vance.”
Ethan stopped breathing.
“What revocation?”
“She signed a document canceling the trust.”
“When?”
“Three weeks before she died.”
“Why didn’t you say this before?”
“Because I knew how it would look.”
“How what would look?”
Bianca reached for the door.
Ethan blocked it.
“How did you get the revocation?”
“I found it in Laura’s office.”
“After she died?”
“Yes.”
“Why did you deliver it to Paul instead of me?”
“Marcus said you were barely functioning.”
Ethan’s fists tightened.
“You all keep using my grief as permission.”
“You signed everything!”
Bianca shouted it.
Then immediately covered her mouth.
The house went silent.
Ethan looked at her.
“Yes.”
His voice was low.
“I did.”
She stared.
“I signed things I didn’t read. I trusted people I shouldn’t have. I ignored Laura when she tried to tell me something was wrong.”
Bianca’s anger faded.
Ethan continued.
“That is mine to answer for.”
He opened the door.
“But it does not erase yours.”
Bianca left.
At 2:13 that morning, an alarm woke Ethan.
The stable tack-room door had been forced open.
The security camera covering the aisle had been disabled through the administrator panel.
Ethan ran downstairs.
Laura’s metal box was gone.
He called the sheriff.
Then Nora.
“Owen still with you?”
“Yes. Why?”
Ethan shut his eyes.
“Keep the doors locked.”
Twenty minutes later, Owen called him himself.
“Dad?”
“I’m here.”
“I took Mom’s tape.”
Ethan stopped.
“What?”
“The little cassette. I put it in my backpack yesterday.”
“Why?”
“I wanted to hear her voice.”
Ethan sat down slowly.
The metal box had been stolen.
But the most dangerous piece of evidence was sitting safely beside his son.
Owen whispered:
“Dad… I listened to the other side.”
Ethan’s grip tightened.
“What did she say?”
A pause.
May you like
Then Owen read the words he had written down.
“Mom said, ‘M told Paul not to file it. And Bianca brought me another blank signature page.’”
