Chapter Sixty-Six
Within the hour, workers and equipment were amassing under Lawrence’s orders.
He knew every inch of the property like the back of his hand, and he helped with the coordination.
Dixon attempted to get Victor to leave while workers assembled to begin the delicate job of exhuming Eden’s remains under the direction of the local medical examiner, who happened to be one of the attendees at the reception, along with the rest of Virginia’s elites.
Victor refused. He would stay until Eden was found, with Myles at his side. And Isla planned to be there with him.
There wasn’t far for Jackson to go. Which left Brooke and Bennett. Bennett had nothing to say. He was a shell of the usually flamboyant and boisterous jerk he usually was. His mother had plenty to say, and she wanted everyone to hear it.
Brooke cried, “I didn’t know what Jackson was up to, Victor. I swear I didn’t!”
“You knew enough,” Victor said, his voice so full of grief it clawed at Isla.
There was no more pretending. No more maybes to hide behind.
There was the cold, hard, hateful fact that Eden was truly gone.
She was down there. Not in Bora Bora or the Maldives.
She hadn’t thrown her family away, or Isla.
She had gone. She had been taken. And it shouldn’t have been, except for greed and power.
Victor said, “Get them out of my sight. Get them out of my house.”
Bennett and his mother were led away, their pleas to Victor trailing after them.
Eventually, only Isla and Victor remained by the grave, standing vigil while the crew worked diligently.
Both of those who loved her the most, broken to know what she had gone through and that they hadn’t been there to help.