Chapter 6 - THE NIGHT THE LIGHTS WENT OUT
Amelia and Nathaniel reached Hart Manor in twenty-two minutes.
The gates stood open.
Every light in the house was off.
Amelia left the vehicle before it fully stopped.
Nathaniel caught her arm.
“We do not know who is inside.”
“My father is inside.”
“And running blindly will not help him.”
He opened the trunk and removed two flashlights and a compact emergency kit.
They entered through the side door.
The security system was disabled.
A smell of smoke drifted through the corridor.
Amelia moved toward Theodore’s study.
The door stood open.
Furniture had been overturned. Papers covered the floor. The hidden compartment behind the bookshelf was exposed and empty.
“Theodore?” Amelia called.
No answer.
Nathaniel examined the desk.
“Someone searched this room.”
Amelia found Theodore’s phone beneath a chair.
The screen was shattered.
A dark stain marked the carpet near the window.
Blood.
She crouched beside it.
“Not much,” Nathaniel said. “He may still be mobile.”
A sound came from upstairs.
Amelia ran toward the staircase.
At the top, a figure moved across the landing.
“Stop.”
The figure disappeared into the east wing.
Amelia followed and entered her old bedroom.
The room had been stripped.
The wardrobe doors hung open. Drawers lay on the floor. The bed had been pushed aside, exposing a narrow service panel in the wall.
Amelia pulled it open.
A hidden corridor ran between the rooms.
She entered.
Nathaniel followed.
At the far end, they found bundles of letters tied with black ribbon.
Amelia’s letters.
Dozens of them.
Some were unopened. Some were charred. Several carried military hospital stamps.
Nathaniel picked up one envelope.
“She kept them.”
“Why?”
“Evidence of what she intercepted.”
“Or leverage.”
A faint groan sounded below them.
They followed the passage to a narrow staircase leading behind the library.
Theodore lay at the bottom.
Blood covered one side of his face.
Amelia dropped beside him.
“Dad.”
His eyes opened.
“Amelia?”
“I’m here.”
Nathaniel checked his pulse.
“He needs a hospital.”
Theodore gripped Amelia’s sleeve.
“No hospital.”
“You may have a skull fracture.”
“They control the hospital board.”
“Who?”
Theodore’s gaze moved toward Nathaniel.
“The network.”
“What network?” Nathaniel asked.
Theodore struggled to breathe.
“They used Hart Meridian contracts. Vale was only the door.”
Amelia leaned closer.
“Who attacked you?”
“I didn’t see.”
“Cassandra?”
“No.”
“Julian?”
Theodore closed his eyes.
“No.”
Nathaniel and Amelia exchanged a look.
Theodore’s fingers tightened.
“The bridge report,” he whispered. “Not construction.”
“What is it?”
“Insurance.”
His body went limp.
For one terrifying second, Amelia thought he had died.
Then Nathaniel found a pulse.
They took Theodore to a private Blackwood medical facility rather than the local hospital.
Doctors diagnosed a concussion, two fractured ribs, and internal bleeding. Emergency surgery saved his life.
For the next thirty-six hours, Theodore remained unconscious.
Cassandra called repeatedly.
Amelia did not answer.
Julian sent a message claiming they had returned from dinner to find the house empty and damaged. He expressed concern for Theodore and asked which hospital had admitted him.
Amelia deleted the message.
Nathaniel’s security team searched Hart Manor.
They found no fingerprints beyond household staff and family members.
The external cameras had been disabled remotely.
The internal system had been erased.
But one device survived.
The old recording system behind Theodore’s bookcase contained a backup transmitter.
At 3:14 that morning, Nathaniel played the recovered audio.
Footsteps entered the study.
Theodore said, “You should not be here.”
An altered voice answered, “You should have signed the transfer.”
“I will not give you Hart Meridian.”
“You already did.”
A struggle followed.
Then Theodore shouted a name.
The recording distorted at that exact moment.
Nathaniel replayed it repeatedly.
The name remained impossible to hear.
Amelia stood beside the window, wearing the same clothes from the previous night.
“Can your technicians restore it?”
“They will try.”
“What transfer?”
“We found references to a contingency trust created five years ago.”
“By my father?”
“The documents carry his signature.”
“Are they real?”
“I do not know yet.”
Nathaniel opened another file.
“The trust transfers controlling interest in Hart Meridian if Theodore is declared mentally incompetent or dies.”
“To Cassandra?”
“No.”
Amelia looked at him.
“To whom?”
“The beneficiary identity is sealed under a code.”
“Can you break it?”
“Yes.”
“How long?”
Nathaniel met her eyes.
“Amelia, there is something else.”
He turned the screen.
The trust was witnessed by two people.
One was Julian Cross.
The other was Nathaniel’s uncle, Victor Blackwood.
Amelia stared at the name.
“You said your uncle was trying to take your company.”
“He was.”
“Why is he involved with my father’s trust?”
“I don’t know.”
“Did you know he had dealings with Hart Meridian?”
“No.”
She studied Nathaniel’s face.
He looked genuinely disturbed.
Yet for the first time since their marriage, a thin line of suspicion entered her mind.
Nathaniel saw it.
“You are wondering whether I married you because of this.”
Amelia said nothing.
“I did not know the trust existed,” he said.
“Can you prove that?”
“No.”
The answer was immediate.
Honest.
And painful.
Amelia turned away.
Behind them, Theodore’s heart monitor began sounding an alarm.
They rushed into his room.
Doctors surrounded the bed.
Theodore’s eyes opened briefly.
He looked directly at Nathaniel.
“You,” he whispered.
Amelia froze.
Theodore lifted one trembling hand and pointed.
May you like
“You brought him into her life.”
Then his heart stopped.
