Chapter 5 - THE RETURN OF MARA MAREN
Vivian treated Julian’s wound in the hidden chamber while Elena searched Marcus.
She found two phones, a ring of keys and a photograph folded inside his wallet.
The photograph showed Marcus as a young police officer standing beside Isabella outside Valmont Mansion.
A date was written on the back.
The morning after Eliana died.
“You were here,” Elena said.
Marcus looked at her without remorse.
“I responded to a missing-child report.”
“What child?”
“You.”
Celeste trembled.
“Elena was never reported missing.”
Marcus looked toward her.
“Isabella filed the report under a different name. She claimed a maid abducted a stillborn infant and was suffering from delusions.”
“Mara was not delusional,” Celeste said.
“The official record said otherwise.”
Elena crouched in front of him.
“You found my mother.”
Marcus’s silence confirmed it.
“What did you do?”
“I followed her to the north railway station. She had the baby and a leather case. Samuel Maren was with her.”
Elena’s breath caught.
“Samuel survived the crash?”
“He crawled from the river and reached the station.”
“What happened there?”
“Isabella arrived before the train.”
Marcus leaned back against the wall.
“She offered Samuel a choice. Give up the child and keep Mara alive, or resist and lose both.”
“What did he choose?”
“He attacked me.”
Marcus touched the scar near his jaw.
“Samuel told Mara to run. She boarded a freight train with you. Samuel stayed behind.”
“Did Isabella kill him?”
“I don’t know.”
“You’re lying.”
“I saw him fall. When I regained consciousness, Samuel, Isabella and the leather case were gone.”
Elena searched his face.
“Then my mother returned to the mansion later.”
“Three months later. She believed the original bloodline trust was hidden here.”
“Who saw her?”
“I did.”
“What happened?”
“Before I could stop her, she escaped.”
Elena remembered her mother’s recurring nightmares, the way Mara checked every lock twice and never remained in one city longer than a few years.
“Why didn’t Isabella find us?”
“Mara was clever. She changed names, moved constantly and never used Samuel’s accounts.”
“Yet she died four months ago.”
Marcus glanced toward Isabella’s second phone lying on the floor.
Elena followed his gaze.
She picked it up.
The phone was locked, but a notification appeared.
PACKAGE CONFIRMED. M. MAREN FILE CLOSED.
Elena felt the chamber tilt.
“My mother’s illness wasn’t natural.”
Vivian took the phone from her.
“We don’t know that.”
Marcus said nothing.
Elena seized his collar.
“What did Isabella do?”
“I wasn’t involved.”
“You followed Mara for twenty-five years.”
“No. Isabella received a message last year claiming Mara had contacted a detective. She hired someone else.”
“Who?”
“I never knew his name.”
“Why should I believe anything you say?”
“Because if Isabella wanted you dead, you would already be dead.”
A noise came from the passage.
Detective Adrian Cross entered with his weapon drawn.
“Step away from him.”
Elena stared.
He looked older than the man in her mother’s faded photograph, but his eyes were the same.
Vivian lowered the pistol.
“How did you find us?” Julian asked.
Cross held up a phone.
“Nurse Holt sent me the location.”
Vivian nodded.
“I contacted him after discovering the medication.”
Cross handcuffed Marcus.
Elena took out her mother’s letter.
“She said you believed her once.”
“I believed enough to destroy my career.”
“What happened?”
“Twenty-five years ago, Mara came to my station carrying a newborn and accusing one of the most powerful families in the country of murder. I was a junior detective.”
“You turned her away?”
“No. I opened an investigation.”
Cross looked toward Celeste.
“The next morning, my superior closed it. Evidence disappeared. Witnesses changed their statements. Marcus testified that Mara was mentally unstable.”
Marcus stared at the floor.
“I continued privately,” Cross said. “Three months later, Mara contacted me and said she had found the original birth record and a statement signed by the doctor.”
“The bloodstained document?”
“I never saw it. We arranged to meet. She didn’t appear.”
Elena’s heart pounded.
“She came here instead.”
“Apparently.”
Cross turned to Marcus.
“Where was the document hidden?”
Marcus laughed softly.
“You still think I know everything.”
Cross searched the second phone.
“We can arrest him for kidnapping and attempted murder, but Isabella’s lawyers will isolate him from us within an hour.”
“Then arrest Isabella,” Julian said.
“For what? A twenty-five-year-old accusation supported by incomplete letters and a bracelet?”
“She tried to burn Elena alive.”
“Can you prove she ordered it?”
Julian looked at Marcus.
Marcus smiled.
Cross continued.
“We need the original statement. We need the doctor’s signature. Most of all, we need evidence connecting Isabella to Eliana’s death.”
Celeste lifted her head.
“The photograph.”
Elena showed Cross the image that had been hidden in the nursery.
He examined it.
“This proves Mara and Celeste knew each other. Nothing more.”
“No,” Celeste said. “The other photograph.”
“What other photograph?”
“The one inside the complete locket.”
Elena looked at the gold half around her neck.
“Where is the second half?”
May you like
Celeste gripped the arms of her wheelchair.
“Isabella has it.”
