Chapter 7 - The Price of Silence
Rachel threw Emily to the floor.
The cottage window exploded.
Adrian fired toward the road while Mara dragged Jonah’s bed behind a stone partition.
More shots tore through the walls.
The people outside continued shouting through the loudspeaker, but their words no longer mattered.
Real agents did not shoot at children.
“There is a cellar!” Mara called.
Mrs. Bell found the trapdoor beneath the kitchen rug.
Adrian covered them as they descended.
Rachel entered last with Emily in her arms. A bullet struck the floor beside her shoulder.
She slammed the trapdoor shut.
The cellar contained emergency lights, bottled water, and another tunnel.
“You all enjoy tunnels,” Rachel said breathlessly.
“Victor enjoys surrounding people,” Adrian replied. “We learned to build exits.”
They moved through the underground passage.
Emily had become frighteningly quiet.
Rachel touched her cheek.
“Are you hurt?”
Emily shook her head.
“Why are they trying to kill me?”
Rachel had no answer.
Jonah, carried on a collapsible chair by Mara and Adrian, answered from behind them.
“Because they are afraid of what you inherited.”
Rachel stopped.
“What did she inherit?”
Jonah’s breathing was labored.
“Not money.”
“Then what?”
“Daniel’s memory.”
“She was one year old when he died.”
Jonah looked at Emily.
“Was she?”
Rachel stared at him.
“Emily is seven.”
“Daniel disappeared six years ago. You were told the crash occurred on October seventeenth.”
“Yes.”
“The investigation ended in June.”
Rachel felt cold spread through her body.
“What are you saying?”
“Daniel had already stopped working with us four months before the crash. He said he had to protect his family. But Victor did not learn Emily existed until recently.”
“That is impossible. Daniel’s name is on her birth certificate.”
“Victor never saw it.”
Adrian looked back.
“Three weeks ago, someone accessed the sealed hospital records from the night Emily was born.”
“Who?”
“We do not know.”
Jonah coughed.
“Soon after, Victor ordered Marcus to find the child.”
Rachel held Emily closer.
“Why?”
Jonah looked at the old photograph in Rachel’s pocket.
“Because Emily looks exactly like the girl in Leonard Bennett’s hidden records.”
“Which girl?”
“Victor’s daughter.”
Adrian stopped walking.
“My uncle never had children.”
“He had one,” Jonah said. “A daughter born outside his marriage. She disappeared when she was eight.”
Rachel’s thoughts became tangled.
“What does that have to do with Emily?”
Jonah reached into his coat and removed a damaged photograph.
It showed a little girl standing beneath the fountain at Bennett Hall.
She had dark hair, a narrow face, and a distinctive crescent-shaped birthmark below her left ear.
Emily had the same birthmark.
Rachel looked at her daughter.
Emily touched the mark unconsciously.
“That does not prove anything,” Rachel said.
“No,” Jonah answered. “But Daniel believed the missing girl was connected to the money Victor stole.”
Adrian’s voice hardened.
“Why did you never tell me?”
“Because your uncle killed everyone who knew.”
“Is the girl alive?”
Jonah did not answer.
The tunnel ended inside an abandoned chapel.
Mara locked the door behind them.
Rain drummed against the roof.
Adrian tried his phone.
“No signal.”
Mrs. Bell crossed to the altar and lit two candles.
Rachel took Daniel’s letter from her pocket again.
Trust Thomas with the evidence, but do not trust him with Emily.
“Where did Daniel leave this?” she asked.
Jonah looked at the envelope.
“He gave it to me the night before the warehouse fire.”
“Did he explain?”
“He said Thomas had changed after discovering the identity of Victor’s daughter.”
“How?”
“He stopped sharing evidence. He began meeting someone alone. Daniel believed Thomas planned to use the child as leverage.”
“Thomas saved Emily tonight.”
“Perhaps.”
A sound came from the chapel balcony.
Adrian raised his gun.
Thomas stepped from the shadows.
Blood covered one side of his shirt.
Emily ran toward him.
“Mr. Thomas!”
Rachel caught her before she reached him.
Thomas noticed Daniel’s letter in Rachel’s hand.
His face changed.
“Where did you get that?”
“Jonah.”
Thomas looked at the burned man.
“You were supposed to destroy it.”
Jonah smiled bitterly.
“You were supposed to tell her the truth.”
Thomas pressed a hand against his wounded side.
“We do not have time.”
“We have exactly enough time,” Rachel said. “Why did Daniel warn me not to trust you with Emily?”
Thomas’s eyes moved to the child.
“Because Daniel believed she was Victor Bennett’s granddaughter.”
No one spoke.
Rachel’s voice became almost inaudible.
“That is impossible.”
Thomas reached into his jacket and withdrew a sealed laboratory report.
“I ran a private DNA test two years ago.”
Rachel did not take it.
“How did you get Emily’s DNA?”
Thomas looked ashamed.
“A cup she used at school.”
Rachel slapped him.
The sound echoed through the chapel.
Thomas did not move.
“You stayed away from us for years, then followed my daughter?”
“I was protecting her.”
“You stole her DNA.”
“I needed to know whether Victor was looking for the right child.”
Rachel snatched the report and opened it.
The page stated that Emily shared a close biological relationship with a sample identified only as V.B.
“Where did you get Victor’s DNA?”
“From a glass.”
“This says close relationship. It does not say granddaughter.”
“The test was limited.”
Rachel tore the paper in half.
“Daniel was Emily’s father.”
“I know.”
“Then she cannot be Victor’s granddaughter.”
May you like
Thomas lowered his voice.
“Daniel may have been Victor’s son.”
