Chapter 9 - The Trap at Harrington TowerThe centennial celebration should have been canceled.
He no longer cared about paintings, antiques, jewelry, or the reputation attached to its gates.
People mattered.
Maria.
Sofia.
The staff.
Even Victoria, who had been temporarily released while prosecutors evaluated her cooperation.
By 9:00 p.m., almost everyone had left.
Police remained.
Daniel remained.
Brooks did too.
“If Victor comes here, he’s coming for something,” Daniel said.
“The W-17 evidence,” Brooks replied.
“Or Alexander.”
They believed Alexander might return to retrieve hidden materials.
Instead, Victor arrived first.
At 10:42, motion sensors detected movement near the eastern greenhouse.
Police surrounded the area.
A man emerged with his hands raised.
Victor Harrington.
He was sixty-seven now.
Gray-haired.
Thin.
Rain soaked his expensive jacket.
Daniel watched from inside.
Victor called out.
“Daniel!”
Brooks ordered him to stay back.
Victor laughed.
“Still letting other people protect you?”
Daniel stepped onto the terrace.
“Why are you here?”
“To save your life.”
“You tried to kill me thirteen years ago.”
Victor’s face changed.
“So Alexander told you.”
“Marcus did.”
Victor slowly nodded.
“I sabotaged the car.”
Daniel’s hands curled into fists.
“You killed my father.”
“I was trying to stop you from attending a board meeting.”
“You cut the brakes.”
“I was desperate.”
“That doesn’t make it better.”
“No.”
Victor looked older suddenly.
“It makes it unforgivable.”
Daniel wanted to hate him simply.
But Victor’s next words complicated everything.
“I didn’t know Richard would take the car.”
“Dad died because of you.”
“Yes.”
Victor did not look away.
“And I have lived with that every day.”
Daniel’s voice turned cold.
“Why come now?”
“Alexander is going to burn this house.”
Brooks shouted for officers to check the property.
Victor continued.
“He planted accelerants months ago.”
Daniel stared.
“How do you know?”
“Because I helped him.”
Before anyone could react, an explosion shattered windows on the west side.
Flames erupted through the roof.
“Move!” Brooks screamed.
Officers pulled Daniel away.
Fire spread unnaturally fast through walls.
Accelerants.
Victor had told the truth.
Then Daniel remembered something.
“Room 17.”
Brooks grabbed him.
“No.”
“The original evidence is down there.”
“Evidence can burn. You can’t.”
Daniel looked toward the mansion.
Then he remembered more than files.
His father’s last letters.
Family photographs.
But Brooks was right.
He stayed outside.
Firefighters arrived.
Within minutes, another explosion struck the service wing.
A firefighter shouted that one person might still be inside.
Daniel’s heart stopped.
“Who?”
A security officer checked the staff list.
“Victoria Harrington.”
Daniel turned.
His mother had returned earlier to retrieve personal documents.
She had never come out.
Daniel ran toward the mansion.
Brooks tackled him before he reached the door.
“No!”
“My mother is inside!”
“Fire department!”
Daniel struggled.
Then Maria screamed.
She pointed toward an upstairs window.
Victoria stood behind smoke-filled glass.
Flames climbed the curtains behind her.
A firefighter ladder moved into position, but fire blocked the hallway.
Victoria struck the window.
It would not open.
Daniel felt helpless.
Then Victor did something nobody expected.
He ran inside.
“Victor!” Daniel shouted.
The doorway swallowed him.
Two minutes passed.
Then three.
Smoke poured from the second floor.
Firefighters advanced.
Suddenly a side door burst open.
Victor stumbled out carrying Victoria.
Both collapsed on the grass.
Daniel ran to them.
Victoria coughed violently.
Victor’s hands were burned.
She stared at him.
“Why?”
Victor laughed painfully.
“Maybe I got tired of being the worst Harrington.”
Paramedics rushed them away.
The mansion continued burning.
By dawn, the west wing was destroyed.
Room 17 had partially collapsed.
But investigators recovered several fireproof boxes.
One contained Richard’s original financial evidence.
Another contained something no one expected.
A sealed paternity file.
Alexander Vale was not Edmund Harrington’s son.
DNA testing conducted secretly by Richard years earlier proved it.
Alexander had built his entire life around believing the Harrington family had stolen his inheritance.
But biologically, he had never been a Harrington.
Daniel stared at the report.
“Did Alexander know?”
Brooks examined Richard’s notes.
“Your father planned to tell him.”
A handwritten letter explained that Edmund had supported Alexander’s mother because they had been romantically involved, but evidence later proved another man was Alexander’s biological father.
Richard had hesitated to reveal it, fearing Alexander would see it as cruelty.
Before he could decide what to do, Richard died.
Daniel understood immediately.
“If Alexander doesn’t know, this could change everything.”
Brooks shook her head.
“Or make him more dangerous.”
At the hospital, Victor requested to speak with Daniel.
His hands were bandaged.
Victoria slept in the next room.
Daniel stood near the door.
“Why did Alexander target me?”
Victor looked at him.
“Because Richard chose you.”
“For what?”
“The company. The legacy. Everything Alexander believed should have been his.”
Victor closed his eyes.
“I hated Richard too. For years.”
“Enough to kill him.”
“Enough to hurt you. I never intended to kill him.”
Daniel’s voice sharpened.
“You keep saying that like it matters.”
“It doesn’t.”
Victor looked at him again.
“But Alexander intended every death.”
Daniel frowned.
“The breakfast?”
“Yes.”
“Maria?”
“Yes.”
“Marcus?”
“Yes.”
“Charles?”
“Yes.”
Victor swallowed.
“He’s cleaning up everyone who can identify him.”
“Where is he?”
“I don’t know.”
Daniel turned to leave.
Victor said, “He’ll come for you at the company anniversary.”
Daniel stopped.
The Harrington Holdings centennial celebration was three days away.
It had been postponed after the scandal.
Victor shook his head.
“Don’t cancel it.”
“Why?”
“Because Alexander has spent thirty years wanting one thing more than money.”
“What?”
Victor looked at him.
“To stand on a stage in front of the Harrington family and tell the world you stole his life.”
Daniel understood.
Alexander did not merely want revenge.
May you like
He wanted an audience.
And Daniel was going to give him one.
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