Chapter 11 - The Recording After the Cut
Dominic picked up the recorder.
Harper’s slipper was damp and warm.
She had passed through recently.
“Mia!” he shouted.
His voice echoed through the chamber.
No answer.
Nathan and Adrian reached the bottom of the stairs.
The underground room was unlike anything else beneath Blackthorne.
Its walls were covered with black iron panels engraved with names. Electrical cables had been added decades after the chamber was built. A control console stood in the center beneath a glass case.
Inside the case lay a silver key shaped like a thorn.
Nathan approached the recorder.
“Play the rest.”
Dominic pressed the button.
Static hissed.
Nathan’s recorded voice began again.
“Keep Mia hidden until Dominic signs the estate over to her.”
A second voice answered.
Mrs. Bell.
“If he discovers what she is before the transfer, he will never sign.”
Nathan’s voice returned.
“He deserves the truth.”
“Truth will make him hesitate. Vivienne only needs one hour of hesitation.”
“What about Adrian?”
“Bring him to the chapel.”
“And the other heir?”
A pause.
Mrs. Bell lowered her voice.
“The other heir must remain dead.”
The recording ended.
Dominic looked at Nathan.
“You were working with Mrs. Bell.”
“Yes.”
“She knew about Mia.”
“She knew more than anyone.”
“You said she locked Mia in the cellar.”
“To protect her.”
Adrian leaned against the wall.
“Or to keep her available.”
Dominic turned.
“What do you mean?”
“Mrs. Bell served Julian for thirty years.”
“She helped raise us,” Nathan said.
“She also helped hide me.”
The room vibrated again.
Letters illuminated across the control console.
ASHFORD AUTHORIZATION REQUIRED.
MIA VALE.
Dominic stared at the name.
Adrian pointed toward the glass case.
“That is what she can open.”
“The silver key?”
“The chamber beyond it.”
“What is inside?”
“Julian called it the inheritance beneath the inheritance.”
Nathan moved closer to the console.
“Money?”
“Evidence.”
“Of what?”
“Every government official, judge, banker, and company director the Blackthorne network controlled for more than a century.”
Dominic felt disgust.
“My father guarded a blackmail archive.”
“Your father expanded it.”
Footsteps sounded beyond the far wall.
A narrow doorway opened.
Mia entered carrying Harper.
Dominic crossed the distance in seconds.
He pulled them both into his arms.
Mia resisted for one moment.
Then Harper wrapped herself around him.
“Daddy.”
Dominic held his daughter against his chest.
“I’ve got you.”
Harper began sobbing.
Mia’s face was bruised. Dirt stained her clothes. Her eyes were full of exhaustion and anger.
“Are you hurt?” Dominic asked.
“Not badly.”
“I am sorry.”
“For which lie?”
The question cut through him.
“All of them.”
Nathan watched from a distance.
Mia noticed him.
“You survived.”
“Barely.”
“Your mother?”
“Alive.”
Harper looked at the recorder in Dominic’s hand.
“I kept it safe.”
“You did perfectly,” Dominic said.
Mia looked toward the silver key.
“What is this room?”
Adrian answered.
“The reason Julian placed you in Dominic’s path.”
Mia’s eyes moved to him.
“You knew?”
“I knew an Ashford descendant had been hidden under a Vale identity.”
“I am not Julian’s daughter.”
“No.”
Dominic touched her arm.
“The DNA test confirmed it.”
She pulled away.
“You tested me?”
“I used a glass after dinner.”
The hurt in her face was worse than hatred.
“You took my DNA without telling me.”
“I needed to know whether we were related.”
“And when you learned we were not, you decided the rest did not matter?”
“I thought I was protecting you.”
“No. You were protecting the life you wanted.”
Dominic had no defense.
Mia turned to the console.
“Why does it recognize my name?”
“Because someone entered your identity decades ago,” Adrian said.
“Who?”
A speaker above the console crackled.
Vivienne’s voice filled the chamber.
“Julian did.”
They looked toward the ceiling.
A camera rotated above the doorway.
Vivienne continued.
“He believed your blood could open the archive. He was correct.”
Mia looked around.
“Where are you?”
“Close enough.”
The far doors slammed shut.
Metal locks engaged.
Nathan rushed toward them.
Vivienne’s voice remained calm.
“The chamber requires an Ashford descendant and a registered Blackthorne heir.”
Dominic looked at the names on the wall.
“Mia is Ashford.”
“Yes.”
“And who is the Blackthorne heir?”
“That is the question Julian spent his life answering incorrectly.”
The control console illuminated.
Four identity slots appeared.
ADRIAN CROSS.
DOMINIC VALE.
NATHAN VALE.
UNKNOWN REGISTRANT.
Mia stepped back.
“The fourth heir.”
Vivienne laughed softly.
“One of you has spent years living beside that person.”
The wall screen turned on.
Security footage appeared.
It showed the manor’s front hall.
Inspector Lena Ward entered with armed police.
Then someone approached behind her.
Mrs. Bell.
Alive.
Uninjured.
She leaned toward Lena and pointed toward the basement.
Nathan stared.
“She was shot.”
“Apparently not,” Adrian said.
Dominic watched Mrs. Bell guide the police through the manor.
She knew every route.
Every door.
Every hidden passage.
On the screen, she looked directly at the camera.
May you like
Then she smiled.
The underground chamber filled with gas.
