Chapter 6 - the man who departed before the crime
The police arrived at Vale Manor shortly after one in the morning.
Victoria was taken to a private interview room. Her father demanded an attorney. Noah Reed surrendered the false security uniform and repeated his claim that Beatrice had hired him for crowd control.
The guests were released one group at a time after providing their contact information.
By three in the morning, the ballroom was almost empty.
The chandeliers remained lit above broken glass, abandoned champagne, and flowers that had begun to wilt.
Seraphina sat on a velvet bench while a doctor examined her.
“The baby’s heartbeat is steady,” the doctor said. “You need rest and observation, but I see no immediate sign of distress.”
Alexander released the breath he had been holding.
Seraphina looked at him.
“I told you we were all right.”
“You also told me you would not enter the west wing alone.”
“I entered with you.”
“You tried before I arrived.”
“That was different.”
“It was exactly the same danger with fewer guards.”
The doctor smiled faintly.
“I will leave you two to continue this argument after she rests.”
When they were alone, Alexander knelt in front of Seraphina.
“I should never have allowed you to come here.”
“You did not allow me. We made a decision together.”
“I failed to protect you.”
“You stopped Victoria.”
“After she touched you.”
“She is responsible for that, not you.”
Alexander rested his forehead against her hands.
“I heard your voice from the entrance. You sounded afraid.”
“I was.”
“I cannot forget it.”
“Then remember what happened next. You came to me.”
He looked up.
“And if I had arrived one minute later?”
“Then I would have found another way to stand.”
Alexander wanted to argue, but her expression stopped him.
Seraphina had spent most of her life surviving people who thought she needed permission to be strong. Loving her did not give him the right to become another person who decided for her.
He stood and kissed her forehead.
“We face the next part together.”
“Yes.”
Daniel entered carrying two folders.
“The aircraft record is genuine.”
Alexander turned.
“How?”
“It used an authorization code created by your father twenty-four years ago.”
“He is dead.”
“The code should have been deactivated when he died. It was not.”
“Who was on the aircraft?”
“The passenger manifest lists only Lucien Vale.”
“That proves nothing.”
“Agreed. The pilot is missing, and the aircraft turned off its tracking system over the ocean.”
Seraphina looked toward the windows.
“Could Beatrice have created the record to frighten us?”
“Yes,” Daniel said. “But there is another issue.”
He opened the first folder.
“Lucien Vale’s death certificate was signed by a physician who later received four million dollars from a Vale subsidiary.”
Alexander stared at the payment.
“Why has no one found this before?”
“The subsidiary was concealed beneath Wren Holdings.”
Seraphina’s mother had called Wren a promise.
Someone else had used the same name as a hiding place.
Daniel opened the second folder.
“This is the official report from the night your father died. It says he suffered fatal injuries in a car fire.”
“I know.”
“No identification was made at the scene. The body was identified later through dental records.”
“Whose records?”
“The family dentist’s.”
“Is he alive?”
“He disappeared eight years ago.”
Alexander walked toward the empty ballroom.
His memories of his father were complicated.
Lucien had been distant but not unkind. He often vanished for weeks, returning with gifts and explanations that never quite made sense.
On the morning before his reported death, Lucien had asked sixteen-year-old Alexander a strange question.
If everyone told you a locked door was protecting you, would you believe them?
Alexander had laughed.
Lucien had not.
That evening, his car burned on a mountain road.
Beatrice assumed control of the family while Alexander finished school. She became his guardian, his adviser, and later the chairwoman of the Vale trust.
Alexander had trusted her because she had appeared to hold the family together.
Now he understood that she may have been holding it captive.
Seraphina joined him.
“What was your father like?”
“Secretive.”
“Cruel?”
“No.”
“Honest?”
Alexander considered the question.
“I don’t know.”
Daniel received a call.
He listened for several seconds before ending it.
“The police found something in Beatrice’s abandoned car.”
“The missing folder?” Seraphina asked.
“No. A passport.”
“Whose?”
Daniel showed them the photograph.
The face belonged to Lucien Vale.
The passport had been issued six months earlier.
Seraphina studied the image.
The man was older, his hair silver, but there was no mistaking Alexander’s eyes.
“He may be alive,” she said.
Alexander touched the passport.
“Or someone wants me to believe he is.”
A uniformed officer entered the ballroom.
“Mr. Vale, we received a message through the emergency line. The caller asked for Mrs. Seraphina Vale.”
Seraphina stood.
“What message?”
The officer handed her a sealed envelope.
Inside was a single sheet of paper.
May you like
Do not let Alexander open the founder’s room.
The decoy does not know what he is.
