Chapter 14 - The Empty Nursery
Mia’s scream followed Dominic into the passage.
He ran without knowing which direction the abductor had taken. The red emergency lights flashed along three tunnels.
“Harper!”
No answer.
Nathan appeared beside him.
“Split up.”
“No. That is what they want.”
Adrian pointed toward the floor.
A small wet footprint marked the right tunnel.
Harper’s bare foot.
They followed.
Behind them, Lena’s team secured the chamber. Mrs. Bell had been shot through the shoulder. The explosives specialist stabilized the device but could not remove it yet.
Mia ran close behind Dominic.
“Harper!”
A child cried ahead.
They reached an iron staircase leading upward.
At the top was a door.
Dominic pushed it open.
They entered the manor nursery.
Harper’s room.
The curtains moved in the open window.
Her toys were lined along the shelf.
A small figure sat on the bed beneath the white canopy.
Mia rushed forward.
“Harper.”
The child looked up.
She wore Harper’s blue nightdress.
Her dark curls covered part of her face.
Mia stopped three steps from the bed.
Dominic felt the wrongness before the child spoke.
“Who are you?” the girl asked.
She looked exactly like Harper.
The same wide brown eyes.
The same small nose.
The same dimple in the left cheek.
But she was thinner. Paler. A faint scar crossed her forehead.
Mia’s hand covered her mouth.
The girl backed against the headboard.
“Where is Mrs. Gray?”
Dominic crouched slowly.
“What is your name?”
The girl looked toward Nathan and Adrian.
Fear filled her face.
“Rosalie.”
Mia made a broken sound.
“Where did you come from?”
“Grandmother brought me.”
“Vivienne?”
Rosalie nodded.
“She said I could meet my family.”
Dominic searched the room.
The open window led to a stone balcony, but the drop was too far for a child.
“How did you get in here?”
“The wall.”
Rosalie pointed toward the wardrobe.
Dominic opened it.
The rear panel stood ajar.
A passage descended behind the clothes.
Mia sat on the edge of the bed.
“Rosalie, do you know a girl named Harper?”
The child nodded.
“Grandmother showed me pictures.”
“Where did she take her?”
Rosalie looked toward the hidden passage.
“She said only one of us could be real.”
Mia closed her eyes.
Dominic turned to Nathan.
“Where would Vivienne go?”
Nathan shook his head.
“She has safe houses across Europe.”
“Not with Harper. She needs the registry.”
“The server is gone.”
“Then she has both.”
Adrian entered the passage.
“Rosalie was placed here deliberately.”
“A distraction?” Nathan asked.
“A choice.”
Mia looked at him.
“What choice?”
“Which daughter you follow.”
Mia stood.
“I am following Harper.”
“And abandoning the child who may also be yours?”
Mia’s face twisted with pain.
Dominic looked at Rosalie.
The girl held a small wooden horse.
The toy had belonged to him.
Julian carved it when Dominic was five.
“How did you get that?” he asked.
“Grandmother gave it to me.”
“Today?”
“No. I always had it.”
Dominic approached.
A letter was carved beneath the horse.
R.
Not D.
The toy had never belonged to Dominic.
Julian had shown it to him and claimed it was his, but the letter meant Rose.
Or Rosalie.
A message hidden for decades.
Nathan looked through the window.
“Vehicles approaching the south gate.”
Dominic went to the balcony.
Three black SUVs entered the estate.
Lena’s police units raised weapons.
A white flag hung from the first vehicle.
The doors opened.
An elderly man stepped out.
Dominic recognized him.
Sir Malcolm Saye, chairman of the Blackthorne trustees.
He had not spoken to Dominic in five years.
Lena met him in the courtyard.
Malcolm handed her a document.
Nathan cursed softly.
“The vote.”
“It is not Friday,” Mia said.
“It is now,” Adrian replied.
Sir Malcolm looked up at the nursery balcony.
His voice carried across the courtyard.
“Dominic Vale, the Blackthorne covenant has been activated. The trustees require the heir to present herself before midnight.”
Mia stepped beside Dominic.
“Which heir?”
Sir Malcolm looked toward Rosalie.
“The surviving daughter.”
“Both are alive.”
Malcolm’s expression changed.
Then the nursery television turned on.
Vivienne appeared on the screen.
Harper sat beside her inside a moving vehicle.
Her hands were bound.
Mia rushed toward the television.
“Harper!”
Vivienne smiled.
“One daughter is in your house. One daughter is with me.”
Dominic moved closer.
“Let her go.”
“At midnight, the trustees will recognize a single heir. Bring Rosalie to the Blackthorne crypt, and I will exchange her for Harper.”
Mia stared at the screen.
“You want us to trade one child for another.”
“I want you to decide which child belongs to you.”
The transmission ended.
Rosalie began crying.
Mia turned toward her.
The girl looked so much like Harper that the sight was unbearable.
“Are you going to give me to Grandmother?” she whispered.
Mia crossed the room and held her.
“No.”
“Then Harper dies,” Nathan said quietly.
Dominic looked at him.
Nathan’s face was full of grief.
“I am not telling you to do it,” he said. “I am telling you what Mother expects.”
Adrian stood at the hidden passage.
“There may be another route into the crypt.”
“Where?” Dominic asked.
“Under the original Blackthorne chapel.”
Mia remembered the cabinet beneath the altar.
The chapel where everything began.
Sir Malcolm called from the courtyard.
“You have three hours.”
Dominic looked at Mia, Rosalie, and the dark passage behind the wardrobe.
“We are not choosing between them.”
Mia wiped Rosalie’s tears.
“Then we bring both home.”
From downstairs came a sudden burst of gunfire.
Nathan rushed to the balcony.
The trustees’ vehicles were under attack.
At the south gate, a fourth SUV crashed through the iron barrier.
A masked figure leaned from the passenger window and fired toward Sir Malcolm.
Dominic pulled Mia and Rosalie away from the glass.
Adrian looked down.
“That is not Vivienne.”
“Then who?” Nathan asked.
May you like
Adrian watched the vehicle turn toward the chapel.
“The heir Mrs. Bell said was supposed to remain dead.”
