Chapter 11 - ONE DOOR, TWO FAMILIES
The monitor displayed a timer.
Ten minutes.
On the left, Emily slept unaware of the camera hidden above her.
Vivian sat beside the window with her handgun on the table.
On the right, Margaret and Harold struggled against restraints.
A red light blinked above each room.
Claire looked at Elias.
“What happens when the timer ends?”
“One location becomes public.”
“And the other?”
“Disappears.”
Daniel moved toward him.
Elias raised the black device.
“If I release this button, both rooms lock permanently.”
Daniel stopped.
“You’re bluffing.”
“Test me.”
Rebecca shook the metal rail.
“He isn’t bluffing.”
Daniel looked at her.
“How do you know?”
“He took me to the other room.”
“Where are our parents?”
“I don’t know. Underground. Near water.”
Elias smiled.
“Rebecca has always been observant when frightened.”
Claire looked toward Emily’s image.
“This isn’t a choice.”
“It is the only choice your parents failed to make,” Elias said.
“What does that mean?”
“Thomas could have saved your mother or protected the trust.”
Claire went pale.
“He chose the money?”
“He chose what he believed would protect you.”
“My mother died.”
“Because Margaret found her first.”
Daniel turned toward the screen showing his parents.
Margaret was shouting, but the feed had no sound.
Harold appeared weaker.
A dark stain covered one side of his shirt.
“Did you hurt them?” Daniel asked.
“I asked questions.”
“What questions?”
“Where Thomas’s final ledger is hidden.”
“And they didn’t answer?”
“Your mother did.”
“Then why are they still there?”
“Because she lied.”
The timer reached eight minutes.
Daniel studied the room around him.
The orange walls.
The hospital bed.
The restraint rail.
The monitor cables.
Everything was designed to focus them on the screens.
Which meant the true mechanism was elsewhere.
He looked at Claire.
She understood his expression.
Keep him talking.
“Why require Daniel’s signature?” she asked.
Elias turned toward her.
“Because he is my son.”
Daniel felt no shock this time.
Only disgust.
“You don’t get to call yourself that.”
“I gave you life.”
“Then disappeared.”
“I protected you.”
“You watched Harold abuse me.”
“I ensured you became strong.”
“You watched Rebecca attack Emily.”
“I saved her.”
“You allowed it to happen.”
Elias’s calm expression hardened.
“Every system requires risk.”
“Emily is not a system.”
“No. She is the future.”
Daniel moved slightly toward the bed.
The monitor cables ran beneath it.
Rebecca watched him.
Then she looked down.
A small metal panel was visible near her foot.
She shifted her leg to hide Daniel’s movement.
The timer reached six minutes.
Claire continued.
“What is the final ledger?”
“Proof,” Elias said. “Names, accounts, judges, contractors and officials. Everyone who profited from Whitmore Development’s collapse.”
“Does Martin Vale have it?”
“Vale has copies.”
“Where is he?”
“Nearby.”
A sound came through the hallway.
Footsteps.
Daniel reached the panel.
It was secured with two screws.
Rebecca quietly removed a hairpin and dropped it near his hand.
He used it to turn the first screw.
Elias glanced toward him.
Daniel stood.
“What happens after we choose?”
“You sign the trust release.”
“And if I refuse?”
Elias looked at Emily’s image.
Daniel forced himself not to react.
The second screw loosened.
Claire stepped closer to Elias.
“You said Thomas died.”
“He did.”
“Who killed him?”
For the first time, Elias hesitated.
Margaret moved violently on the screen.
Harold’s chair tipped sideways.
The timer showed four minutes.
“Who killed my father?” Claire demanded.
Elias looked at her.
“Your mother.”
Claire’s face collapsed.
“That’s a lie.”
“She discovered he planned to leave with Vivian.”
“Vivian was his sister.”
“Not by blood.”
Claire looked toward Emily’s feed.
Vivian was no longer beside the window.
The chair was empty.
Daniel removed the panel.
Inside were two network cables and a mechanical release.
Rebecca whispered, “Red first.”
He pulled the red cable.
The monitors went black.
Elias pressed the device.
Nothing happened.
Daniel pulled the release.
Rebecca’s handcuff opened.
She lunged at Elias.
The black device fell.
Claire kicked it beneath the bed.
Daniel grabbed Elias and slammed him against the wall.
Rebecca seized the handgun from Elias’s waistband.
For a moment she aimed at him.
Then at Daniel.
“Rebecca,” Daniel said.
Her hands shook.
“You hit me.”
“You pushed Emily into a pool.”
“I was supposed to scare her.”
“She could have died.”
“I didn’t know Mom had removed the floaties.”
“Did you let go?”
Rebecca began crying.
“She told me Claire had poisoned the cake.”
“What?”
“Mom said Claire planned to make Emily sick and blame us. She said we needed bruises to prove Claire was abusive.”
Daniel stared at her.
“You believed that?”
“I believed what I needed to believe.”
A door opened in the corridor.
Martin Vale stepped inside holding a weapon.
He aimed at Rebecca.
“Put it down.”
Rebecca turned.
The gunshot was deafening.
She fell against the hospital bed.
Daniel attacked Vale.
They crashed into the wall.
Claire grabbed Elias’s device.
A second shot struck the ceiling.
Then police flooded the corridor.
Ramirez shouted for everyone to get down.
Vale released his weapon.
Elias raised his hands.
Rebecca lay on the floor, blood spreading across her white dress.
Daniel knelt beside her.
The bullet had struck her shoulder.
She remained conscious.
“Where are Mom and Dad?” he asked.
Rebecca struggled to speak.
“The old reservoir.”
“Which one?”
“Mercer property.”
Daniel called Ramirez over.
As officers secured Elias and Vale, Claire’s phone received a live video message.
It came from Vivian.
She stood inside the room where Margaret and Harold had been restrained.
Both chairs were empty.
Blood covered the floor.
Vivian looked directly into the camera.
“They were gone when I arrived.”
May you like
Then a figure moved behind her.
The video ended.
