Chapter 29 - The Man Who Started the FireMichael had received forty-eight years.
Unlike William, he eventually cooperated fully.
But one question remained unanswered.
Who burned Caldwell Manor on the night Thomas’s portrait first whispered Lily’s name?
Investigators assumed network operatives caused the fire to destroy evidence.
Michael requested a meeting.
Only Edward.
Edward refused.
Michael changed the request.
Edward and Lily.
Lily agreed.
They met inside a federal prison interview room.
Michael looked twenty years older.
He placed both hands on the table.
“I started the fire.”
Edward stared at him.
“Why?”
“To kill you.”
Lily remained still.
Michael explained.
When Lily began discovering the hidden passage, William issued an emergency containment order.
The manor was to burn.
Everyone inside was considered expendable.
Michael initiated the ignition sequence.
But he had secretly changed one part of William’s plan.
The west staircase remained open.
The portrait mechanism activated.
And an audio file played through the wall.
Lily leaned forward.
“The boy whispering my name.”
Michael nodded.
“Thomas.”
Edward frowned.
Thomas had been nowhere near the manor.
Michael explained.
St. Orison had recorded Thomas constantly as a child.
Thousands of voice samples.
Michael assembled Lily’s name from old recordings.
“Why?”
Michael stared at Lily.
“Because I wanted you to look at the portrait.”
Behind the portrait was the safest evacuation route.
Lily suddenly understood.
The voice that began everything had not been supernatural.
It had been a warning.
From a man helping burn the house.
“You tried to murder us and save us at the same time,” Lily said.
Michael nodded.
“I had spent thirty years doing things halfway. Obeying people I hated while convincing myself small acts of disobedience made me decent.”
Edward asked, “Did you expect forgiveness?”
“No.”
“Then why tell us?”
“Because you deserve the true version.”
Lily looked at him for a long time.
Then she stood.
“I don’t forgive you.”
Michael lowered his eyes.
“But I believe you saved us.”
He looked up.
Lily continued.
“Both can be true.”
Outside the prison, Edward asked whether she was okay.
Lily shrugged.
“I hate complicated endings.”
Edward smiled.
“Life seems committed to them.”
As they reached the car, Lily’s phone rang.
Thomas.
She answered.
His voice was breathless.
“You need to come to Cedar House.”
“What happened?”
“We opened the last room beneath the manor.”
Edward stopped.
May you like
Thomas continued:
“And Buddy is inside.”
