Chapter 10 - MIDNIGHT AT VALMONT MANSION
The ballroom doors locked automatically when the lights failed.
Detective Cross ordered every guest searched.
No one admitted seeing who attacked the courier or took the box. The emergency cameras had recorded only static.
Elena found Samuel’s blood near the service corridor.
“He didn’t leave willingly,” she said.
Julian examined the floor.
“The blood trail ends here.”
A laundry cart stood nearby.
Inside, beneath folded tablecloths, they found Samuel’s broken watch.
Julian pointed toward a service elevator.
“The elevator descends to the basement.”
Cross called for officers, but Isabella’s attorney objected to a search without a warrant.
Cross ignored him.
The elevator opened into the mansion’s wine cellar.
Rows of ancient bottles lined stone walls. At the far end stood a modern steel door Elena had never seen.
Julian entered a code.
Access denied.
He tried another.
Denied.
Elena looked at Samuel’s watch.
Its hands had stopped at 11:47.
The date display showed 0217.
“Try two-one-seven.”
Julian entered the numbers.
The door opened.
Beyond it was not a wine vault but a surveillance room.
Screens displayed every corridor, bedroom and entrance in the mansion. Files filled locked cabinets. A large map marked locations across the country.
Elena found Mara’s name beside several addresses.
Isabella had tracked them for years.
Julian opened a cabinet labeled ASHFORD, G.
Inside were photographs of his father meeting detectives, journalists and financial investigators.
“He was building a case against her,” Julian said.
Cross examined a video file dated eighteen months earlier.
The footage showed Gregory Ashford entering the surveillance room with Marcus. They argued beside the desk.
Gregory held a blue ledger.
“You used the foundation to pay witnesses,” Gregory said on the recording. “You financed illegal adoptions, bribed doctors and moved children through private institutions.”
Marcus reached for the ledger.
Gregory stepped back.
“If anything happens to me, Julian receives a copy.”
Marcus smiled.
“Mrs. Valmont already searched his apartment.”
The recording ended as another person entered the room.
The camera angle did not show the person’s face, only a dark red sleeve.
Julian turned away.
“My mother was here.”
Cross opened another file.
This one was dated four months earlier, the week Mara died.
The footage showed Isabella speaking to a young woman whose back faced the camera.
The woman had Elena’s height, Elena’s dark hair and Elena’s posture.
Isabella placed a medical vial on the desk.
“The dose will resemble heart failure,” she said.
The woman replied, “And afterward?”
“You receive the name you were denied.”
The stranger turned slightly.
Elena saw her profile.
It was like looking into a mirror.
Her twin.
The footage ended.
No one spoke.
Elena replayed the final sentence.
You receive the name you were denied.
The young woman had worked with Isabella in exchange for recognition.
Had she poisoned Mara?
A noise came from behind the cabinets.
Cross drew his weapon.
Julian pulled a shelving unit aside, revealing a second steel door.
They entered a narrow passage.
Samuel lay unconscious on the floor. Beside him was the missing evidence box.
Elena rushed to him.
He was breathing.
The box had been opened.
The bloodstained document remained inside, but the final page was missing.
Cross lifted the remaining pages carefully.
The first was Elena’s birth record.
The second was a statement signed by the family doctor, confirming Eliana had delivered two living girls.
The third described the injection Isabella had carried into the nursery.
The fourth page should have contained Samuel’s confession.
Only torn fragments remained near the box.
Samuel opened his eyes.
“She took it.”
“Who?” Elena asked, though she already knew.
“The other girl.”
“Where did she go?”
Samuel tried to sit up.
“She said the final page would destroy both of you.”
“Why?”
“Because Samuel Maren was not the father named in the confession.”
Elena stared.
“Then who was?”
Before he could answer, the mansion’s clock began striking midnight.
The first bell echoed through the cellar.
On the surveillance screens, Celeste’s wheelchair moved through the empty ballroom.
No one was pushing it.
A small black box had been attached beneath the seat.
May you like
Cross looked closer.
“It’s a bomb.”
