Chapter 3: The West Garage

The police did not put Isabella in handcuffs. That would have been too honest. Martha called it a family medical crisis. Arthur Webb called it protective custody. Sebastian told the nearest senator that Isabella had not been sleeping and that the pressure of inheritance had broken something fragile inside her. By the time two men in dark suits escorted her through the service corridor, the story had already changed shape behind her. Poor Isabella. Brilliant girl. Too much pressure. Maybe the fraud was a cry for help. The west garage smelled of rain, gasoline, and lilies from the discarded gala arrangements. A black town car waited near the exit ramp. Its engine was running. Catherine followed them down the stairs, clutching her pearls. "Bella, please do not make this harder." Isabella stopped. "Did you know?" Her mother's face collapsed for one naked second. Then Martha's voice came from behind them. "Catherine knows when silence protects the people she loves." Isabella turned. Her grandmother stood at the bottom of the stairs without a wrinkle in her gown. "You planted the drive," Isabella said. "I planted nothing," Martha replied. "I allowed consequences." "For what?" Martha's eyes were pale blue and empty. "For being the wrong girl in the right cradle." The words struck harder than the scandal. Before Isabella could ask what they meant, Sebastian opened the rear door of the town car. Olivia sat inside, no tears now, lipstick perfect. "I really did love you sometimes," Olivia said. Isabella lunged, but a needle entered her neck. The garage tilted. Catherine cried out. Richard's voice shouted somewhere above them, too late, always too late. Isabella hit the leather seat with half her body numb and her mind fighting through the drug. The car pulled into the storm. Sebastian sat beside her, speaking on the phone. "Yes. She is sedated. Route B. The bridge camera will catch enough. No body if the river takes her." No body. The words cut through the fog. Isabella forced her fingers to move. The unknown number had warned her. She had hidden the flash drive in her stocking before they brought her down. She still had one thing they wanted. The car slowed at a red light near Tenth Avenue. A motorcycle skidded in front of them. The driver cursed. Sebastian looked up. Isabella used the moment to drive her pearl hairpin into his thigh. He screamed. She slammed her shoulder into the door. It opened into rain and headlights. She fell onto the pavement, rolled under the next car, and heard metal fold behind her as the town car swerved into a delivery truck. Flames climbed fast. Someone dragged Isabella by the wrist into an alley. She fought until a woman's voice hissed in her ear, "Stop. I am Megan. If you want to live, Isabella Thorne has to die right now." Across the street, the town car exploded. Megan shoved a bloodied coat into Isabella's hands. Inside the pocket was a passport with a new name. The passport said Leah Mercer, and behind Isabella, sirens began searching for a dead girl.