Chapter 10 - The Person Vanessa Feared
The vehicle stopped outside Lake Marrow House.
Elena heard three doors open.
Then silence.
Vanessa moved toward the window without standing directly in front of it.
“Who found us?” Elena whispered.
Vanessa signaled for her to remain quiet.
Daniel descended the staircase slowly.
He walked like a man recovering from a long illness, one hand gripping the railing and the other pressed against his side.
Elena wanted to run to him.
She wanted to demand answers.
She wanted to ask why he had allowed her to believe he was dead.
But the fear in his eyes stopped her.
He reached the final step.
Vanessa handed him a small key.
“Back exit.”
Daniel shook his head.
“I am not leaving her again.”
“You will lose her permanently if you stay.”
A knock sounded at the door.
Not loud.
Not violent.
Three controlled taps.
Vanessa lifted the pistol.
“Elena, take the ledger.”
Elena pressed it against her chest.
“Tell me who is outside.”
“The person who paid Diane.”
“Who?”
Another three knocks.
Then a woman’s voice called through the door.
“Vanessa, I know Elena is with you.”
Elena recognized the voice.
But she could not remember where she had heard it.
Vanessa’s hand tightened around the pistol.
Daniel whispered, “She should not be alive.”
The person outside continued.
“You have something that belongs to me.”
Elena looked at the ledger.
Vanessa shook her head.
“She is not talking about the book.”
The handle moved.
The door remained locked.
Daniel led Elena toward the kitchen.
A narrow exit opened into the woods behind the house.
Before they reached it, bright headlights appeared between the trees.
Another vehicle blocked the path.
Vanessa cursed under her breath.
“They knew about the tracker.”
Elena touched the device inside her coat.
“Detective Cole placed it.”
“No,” Vanessa said. “Gabriel did.”
“He works with Cole.”
Vanessa looked at her.
“Gabriel works for whoever pays him last.”
Elena’s stomach dropped.
Every security upgrade.
Every copied file.
Every emergency device.
Gabriel had controlled all of them.
“Then the police are not coming?”
“I did not say that.”
Vanessa removed a phone from her pocket and placed it on the table.
The screen showed a live map.
Detective Cole’s team was still five miles away.
Their vehicles had stopped moving.
“Roadblock,” Vanessa said.
The front door shook.
The lock began to separate from the frame.
Daniel opened a hidden panel beneath the kitchen sink and removed a black case.
Inside were passports, cash and a second recording device.
“Elena, listen to me.”
“No more recordings. Tell me now.”
“There is not enough time.”
“You had years.”
Pain crossed his face.
“I was held in that clinic for eighteen months. Vanessa removed me before they could transfer me overseas. I stayed hidden because Blue Crown had people inside the company, the courts and the police.”
“Detective Cole?”
“I do not know.”
“Naomi?”
“No.”
“Nora?”
“No.”
“Gabriel?”
Daniel looked at Vanessa.
She answered.
“Gabriel was hired by your father. Then Diane paid him. Then I paid him more. I do not know whose side he is on today.”
The front lock broke.
Vanessa aimed toward the hallway.
Daniel pressed the second recorder into Elena’s hand.
“This contains the name of the final Blue Crown partner.”
“The ledger says Samuel.”
“Samuel was a name used to hide the controlling partner.”
“Who is it?”
The front door opened.
A shadow entered the foyer.
Vanessa fired once into the ceiling.
Wood splintered.
“Stay back!”
The figure stopped.
Two more people entered behind her.
A woman stepped into the kitchen light.
Elena recognized her immediately.
Margaret Vale.
Chairwoman of the National Medical Relief Council.
Daniel’s oldest business partner.
Elena’s godmother.
The woman who had delivered the speech at Daniel’s funeral.
Margaret looked exactly as Elena remembered her.
Silver-blonde hair.
Dark green coat.
Calm gray eyes.
“Elena,” Margaret said, “put the ledger down.”
Elena stared at her.
“You?”
Margaret smiled.
“That is not the question you should be asking.”
“Did you control Blue Crown?”
“I created it.”
Daniel stepped in front of Elena.
“You will not touch her.”
Margaret looked at him with quiet disappointment.
“You were always sentimental.”
“You ordered Samuel to replace me.”
“Samuel approached me. He wanted what you stole from him.”
“The reserve account belonged to our mother.”
“It belonged to the council.”
Elena held the recorder tighter.
“What do you want from my daughter?”
Margaret’s smile disappeared.
“Your daughter is now the only person who can unlock the reserve account.”
“She is an infant.”
“The trust does not require her signature. It requires a biological confirmation connected to the Harlow line.”
Daniel’s face hardened.
“You will never get near Isabel.”
Margaret glanced toward the back window.
“I already have.”
Elena’s blood turned cold.
“What did you say?”
The phone on the kitchen table rang.
Nora’s name appeared on the screen.
Elena grabbed it.
“Nora?”
At first, she heard only breathing.
Then Nora spoke.
“Elena, someone came to the mansion.”
“Is Isabel safe?”
“She is with me.”
“Lock the doors. Call the police.”
“I did.”
Nora’s voice broke.
“Elena, they did not come for Isabel.”
Margaret watched her calmly.
“What did they take?” Elena asked.
“The silver drive, your father’s files and every sample from the hospital.”
“What samples?”
A pause.
“Your blood. Isabel’s blood. The records from the birth.”
Margaret extended her hand.
“The ledger, Elena.”
Elena looked at Daniel.
Then at Vanessa.
Then at the broken doorway behind Margaret.
Police sirens sounded faintly in the distance.
Margaret’s two guards glanced toward the road.
Vanessa moved first.
She overturned the kitchen table, sending the tape recorder and dishes crashing across the floor.
Daniel pulled Elena toward the back exit.
A shot struck the wall above them.
They ran into the woods.
Branches tore at Elena’s coat as she followed Daniel between the trees.
Vanessa fired behind them.
Margaret shouted for her guards to stop.
She did not sound frightened by the approaching police.
She sounded amused.
Elena’s foot caught on a root.
She fell to one knee.
The original ledger slipped from her arms and opened in the mud.
A photograph slid from between its final pages.
Elena picked it up.
The image showed her mother standing beside Margaret and Diane twenty-six years earlier.
Her mother was pregnant.
On the back was a date and a handwritten sentence.
The first Harlow child survived.
Elena looked at Daniel.
“What does this mean?”
He stared at the photograph.
All color left his face.
“That picture should not exist.”
“Who is the first Harlow child?”
Daniel looked toward the dark trees ahead.
A man was standing between them.
He wore a black coat.
His face remained hidden in shadow.
In his arms was Isabel’s blue hospital blanket.
Elena stopped.
The man lifted his head.
He had Daniel’s eyes.
But he was far too young to be Samuel.
Behind Elena, Margaret’s voice moved closer.
“You wanted to know who the final partner was.”
The man took one step forward.
Elena clutched the recording device.
May you like
Margaret laughed softly from the darkness.
“Ask your brother.”
