“I’m not sure,” Sterling answered. “But I wanted to call you just in case. I finished going through the names on the sign-in sheet at Ms. Matthews’ physical therapy center and one jumped out at me. Did you know your sister-in-law went into Layla’s center a couple of times for physical therapy? Apparently, she’d sprained her wrist playing tennis.”
Nathan’s mind began putting two and two together, even before the detective had come to his conclusion. “Diana was there the day Layla was first threatened?”
“Yeah, she was. Might just be a coincidence, but I’m going to hack her credit card records to see if she’s bought any cans of spray paint lately.”
But something was already telling Nathan what those records would reveal. Diana had lied. She had pretended to not even know who Layla was when she’d stopped by the mansion looking for Andrew. But Nathan was now certain Diana knew exactly who she was and had been threatening her accordingly ever since seeing her at the physical therapy center. He dropped the phone and started pushing through the crowd toward the library.
***
Inside the library, Layla tried to calm the screaming panic inside her mind and talk to Diana. “Diana, I know you think you saw something significant out there, but let me assure you, there is nothing between Andrew and me. I’m in love with Nathan.”
“It doesn’t matter who you’re in love with,” Diana said, coming around the desk. “He’s in love with you. And if I can’t have him, you can’t.”
“I don’t want him. Seriously, I’m in love with Nathan.”
Diana lips trembled into a bitter smile. “That’s what you said ten years ago when you found me in Andrew’s room.”
Layla blinked, trying to process this new piece of information, even as a previously blocked memory unfolded in front of her mind’s eye. “You were there,” she whispered, remembering. “I came to deliver that note, and I found you in his room going through his things. I didn’t know who you were, but I knew you didn’t belong there.”
“I was only trying to gather some information. I wanted to know who this girl was he’d been dating, and see if there was any way I could snatch him back from you.” Diana said. “So I snuck in past the servants and I went into Andrew’s room.”
Layla shook her head. “Snatch him back from me? He broke up with you before he ever met me.”
“I don’t believe you,” Diana said.
She had said the same words that night long ago, Layla now remembered, with that same crazed look in her eyes. Then she’d grabbed a Swiss Army knife off of Andrew’s desk and came running toward her.
Layla’s flight instinct had taken over at the sight of the knife bearing down on her and she’d run, only managing to get out one scream before she missed the step and went tumbling face forward down the stairs.
“It was you I was running from,” she realized out loud.
“Yes, it was me, and I wish you had died. Then you wouldn’t have come back to town to ruin my marriage,” Diana said with venom in her voice. “Am I supposed to believe your return to Pittsburgh at the same time Andrew disappeared was just a coincidence?”
“Yes, that’s exactly what you’re supposed to believe,” Layla said. “Because that’s exactly what happened. I’m not in love with Andrew. In fact, when I came up to his room, I was just there to deliver an apology, because I had already broken up with him.”
“I don’t believe you! I don’t believe you! I don’t believe!” Diana screamed like a toddler throwing a temper tantrum. “All you do is lie. You pretend to be this innocent girl, but you stole Andrew from me twice.” She cocked the gun.
And Layla began to feel real despair. This woman was going to kill her, for real this time, and before she had a chance to tell Nathan how she really felt and why she had chosen to go to the party with Andrew as opposed to him.
She had always had a thing about breaking promises and now she couldn’t escape the irony. She had broken her promise, just once, and now she would be paying for that broken promise with her life.
Tears of frustration sprang to her eyes. “Okay, if you’re going shoot me, no matter what, let me just say this. I love Nathan Sinclair. My heart belongs to him and it always will. If this ends badly for me, please let him know I said that.”
Then Layla surprised her by running toward her and grabbing hold of the gun’s barrel.
***
It felt to Nathan like the crowd grew thicker as he got closer to the library door, as if they were purposefully trying to keep him from Layla, his heart, his soul, the woman he wanted to spend the rest of his life with.
His father had always kept a revolver in a locked drawer in his desk. After inheriting the house, Andrew had not only kept the gun, but had also made a big deal of leaving it in the drawer, claiming that’s what their father would have wanted.
Nathan knew Diana knew it was in there, and he felt sick with fear for Layla. He shoved people aside left and right, and cursed himself for never telling her how he truly felt, for never saying those three words during their two months together: I love you. He had been such a fool. He could only hope he wasn’t too late.
Finally, he reached the library door and was just about to turn the knob, when a gunshot rang out on the other side of it.
EPILOGUE
FOR SOMEONE who hadn’t thought she knew anyone when she first returned to Pittsburgh six months ago, it now seemed to Layla like she was most popular girl in town. Over 300 people had been invited to their wedding, and a few local media outlets, in the hopes that this would provide a natural close to the Diana Sinclair attempted murder/accidental suicide story, which continued to be an ongoing news cycle item four months later. Just about everyone had RSVP’d yes.
“It’s a zoo down there,” Carol said, returning to the master suite of the Sinclair mansion, where Mark and Jacob had set up the pre-wedding bridal base camp. Carol had insisted it was her duty as Layla’s maid of honor to be nosy and go peak over the landing’s banner to do an informal head count. “Did you invite the whole city?”
Layla laughed, which didn’t please Mark, who was trying to apply the last of her makeup. “No, just everyone Sinclair Industries has ever done business with and the entire Matsuda board. I’m happy they all fit in the foyer for the ceremony.”
A shadow passed over Layla’s face. Many of their wedding guests had attended the Sinclair ball four months ago.