Chapter 4 - THE LOCKED ROOM
Sadie called the police.
Victoria panicked.
"No police."
"You're telling me Dad is holding an elderly man against his will."
"You don't understand."
"Then explain."
"I can't on the phone."
"Why?"
Victoria lowered her voice.
"Because Richard records everything."
The call ended.
Wyatt refused to let Sadie go to the estate alone.
They also did not go immediately to the police.
Not because they trusted Victoria.
Because Sadie wanted proof.
At 2:40 p.m., they entered the Carter estate through the rear service road Sadie had used as a teenager.
The mansion was unusually quiet.
Victoria met them near the laundry entrance.
She looked ten years older than she had two days earlier.
"Where's Dad?"
"At the club."
"Melanie?"
"Shopping."
Sadie folded her arms.
"Show me."
Victoria hesitated.
"Mom."
"Your father will kill me."
Wyatt said, "If someone is being held captive, Richard has bigger problems than your fear of him."
Victoria's eyes flashed.
"You think I don't know that?"
She led them upstairs.
Past Sadie's childhood room.
Past Melanie's.
To the locked door at the end of the hall.
Victoria removed a key from inside her blouse.
Sadie stared.
"You had one."
"I was the only person allowed to bring him meals."
"Allowed?"
Victoria's hand shook as she unlocked the door.
The room smelled faintly of antiseptic.
An oxygen machine hummed beside the bed.
The elderly man sitting near the window turned slowly.
Silver hair.
Sharp eyes.
Thin face.
Sadie knew him before he spoke.
"Elias."
His mouth trembled.
"Sadie."
She could not move.
He smiled.
"My little sparrow."
Nobody had called her that since childhood.
Sadie crossed the room in three steps and dropped to her knees in front of him.
"You were alive."
"I am still occasionally surprised by it myself."
She laughed and cried at the same time.
Charles Carter lifted a trembling hand and touched her cheek.
"You're taller."
"You lied to me."
"Yes."
"You let me think you were dead."
"Yes."
"Why?"
"Because your father became more dangerous when he believed I had nothing left to protect."
Wyatt remained near the door.
Watching.
Charles looked at him.
"Mr. Hayes."
"Sir."
"You didn't take the five million."
Wyatt blinked.
Charles smiled faintly.
"I hear things."
Sadie wiped her eyes.
"Grandfather, we need to get you out."
"No."
She stared at him.
"No?"
"If I leave before the trust transition, Richard will know we are ready."
"He hit me emotionally my entire life. He may do worse."
Charles's face hardened.
"He already has."
Sadie glanced at Victoria.
Her mother looked away.
"What does that mean?"
Charles took Sadie's hand.
"Your father did not begin hating you when you became an adult."
The room seemed colder.
"What happened?"
"You survived something he expected you not to survive."
Wyatt stepped forward.
"Charles."
The old man's gaze remained on Sadie.
"When you were nine years old, you fell from the west balcony."
Sadie frowned.
"I remember."
She had spent three weeks in the hospital.
Richard always said she had climbed onto the railing.
Charles said, "You did not fall."
May you like
Sadie stopped breathing.
"I saw him push you."
