Chapter 6 - The Fire Above the Party
The smoke alarm screamed through the house.
Guests rushed in from the garden as staff members shouted instructions. Children began crying. The birthday music stopped.
Daniel lifted Lily into his arms.
“Everyone outside.”
Rebecca stared at the smoke.
“That room was locked.”
Daniel looked at her.
“Who has another key?”
“No one.”
Eleanor stood motionless.
The smoke thickened above the staircase.
Daniel handed Lily to Amelia Grant, who had just entered from the garden.
“Take her and Sophie outside.”
Lily clung to him.
“Dad, don’t go up there.”
“I’ll be right behind you.”
“The phone is in the wall.”
Daniel froze.
“What wall?”
“Behind the tall green book.”
Rebecca pushed through the crowd.
“This is ridiculous. The room is on fire.”
Daniel grabbed a fire extinguisher from beneath the staircase and ran upward.
Eleanor shouted after him.
“Daniel, come back.”
He ignored her.
The blue door was warm but not yet burning. Smoke escaped from the bottom. Daniel used the silver key.
The lock turned.
Inside, flames had begun consuming a pile of papers beside the fireplace.
The fire was too deliberate.
Someone had placed the documents there and lit them only moments earlier.
Daniel emptied the extinguisher across the flames. White powder filled the room. He coughed and covered his mouth with his sleeve.
The blue box lay open on Eleanor’s old reading desk.
It was empty.
Daniel moved toward the bookcase.
Most of the books were covered in dust, but one tall green volume had been pulled slightly forward.
He removed it.
Behind the book was a narrow opening in the wall.
Inside rested an old mobile phone wrapped in plastic.
Daniel took it.
Footsteps sounded behind him.
Rebecca stood in the doorway.
“Give me the phone.”
Daniel slipped it into his jacket.
“Who started the fire?”
“The wiring is old.”
“The papers were burning in a pile.”
“You don’t know what you saw.”
Daniel looked at her shoes.
Gray ash covered the front of one heel.
“You were in this room.”
Rebecca looked down.
Then she stepped backward.
Daniel followed her into the hallway.
“Where is the box?”
“I don’t know.”
“It was open when I entered.”
“Maybe Sophie moved it.”
“Sophie has been downstairs since we arrived.”
Rebecca’s voice cracked.
“You are destroying her birthday over a dead woman’s lies.”
Daniel stopped.
“What lies?”
Rebecca pressed her lips together.
“You said Anna donated the money.”
“I repeated what Mother told me.”
“Then why did you try to burn the evidence?”
“I didn’t.”
“You have ash on your shoes.”
“So do you.”
“I walked through the room after the alarm.”
Rebecca looked toward the stairs.
The hallway below was nearly empty. Guests had been moved into the garden.
Eleanor stood at the bottom of the staircase.
Mother and daughter exchanged another silent look.
Daniel recognized it now.
It was not confusion.
It was coordination.
He took out his phone and called his security director.
“Send a team to the estate. Lock the east and west gates. Nobody removes anything from the house.”
Eleanor climbed one step.
“You have no authority to imprison my guests.”
“The gates will remain open for guests. Family vehicles stay.”
Rebecca’s face twisted.
“You don’t trust us?”
“No.”
Eleanor continued upward.
“Daniel, Anna was unstable before the accident.”
Daniel stared at her.
“Do not speak about my wife.”
“She believed people were following her. She hid money. She recorded conversations. She accused the foundation of crimes that did not exist.”
“Then why are you afraid of her phone?”
Eleanor stopped.
For the first time, she had no answer.
Daniel removed the old device from his jacket.
The screen was cracked, but when he pressed the power button, a battery symbol appeared.
It still worked.
Rebecca lunged toward him.
Daniel stepped aside.
Her hand caught his jacket and tore the pocket.
A small memory card fell onto the floor.
Rebecca saw it.
So did Eleanor.
Rebecca dropped to her knees.
Daniel reached it first.
Eleanor’s voice came from the staircase.
“If you play what is on that card, Lily will learn the truth about where she came from.”
Daniel closed his fingers around it.
“What truth?”
Eleanor looked past him toward the garden doors.
Lily stood there, listening.
May you like
Eleanor’s answer was barely louder than the alarm.
“Anna was not Lily’s biological mother.”
