Russell stared at him.
“Why?”
“So you’d move your assets.”
“To where?”
“Somewhere accessible.”
Margaret laughed bitterly.
“You wanted him frightened enough to consolidate the archive.”
Hayes looked at me.
“And
then I wanted Emily to inherit access.”
My stomach turned.
“Why me?”
“Because Russell trusted you.”
“You used me.”
His expression twisted.
“At first.”
I stepped closer.
“Do not say you loved me.”
He flinched.
“I wasn’t going to.”
That somehow hurt worse.
He continued.
“I didn’t know how to be your father. Margaret disappeared. Russell became untouchable. I spent years imagining revenge.”
“So you arranged for Russell to meet me.”
“Yes.”
“You thought he’d marry me?”
“No.”
A strange smile touched his face.
“I thought he’d investigate you. I thought your resemblance to Margaret would make him curious.”
Russell closed his eyes.
“It did.”
“And then you fell in love with her,” Hayes said.
Russell said nothing.
“That ruined everything.”
I looked at Hayes.
“So your revenge plan failed because Russell loved me?”
“Partly.”
“Then why poison him?”
“Because I discovered what he planned to do with the archive.”
Margaret looked at Russell.
“What did you plan?”
Russell took a slow breath.
“Release it.”
Everyone stared.
“All of it?” Daniel asked.
“Everything that could prove criminal conduct.”
Claire shook her head.
“You’d destroy hundreds of lives.”
“I’d expose hundreds of crimes.”
“You’d destroy yourself too.”
Russell smiled sadly.
“I know.”
That was when I finally understood.
Russell hadn’t faked his death just to escape an assassin.
He had prepared to disappear because he intended to destroy the empire that had made him wealthy.
Margaret turned toward me.
“He changed the plan after marrying you.”
Russell looked embarrassed.
“What plan?”
“He was going to vanish alone.”
“And after?”
“He created a trust.”
Hayes’s face hardened.
