Chapter 10 - Marcus’s Last SecretMarcus had disappeared from the hospital six hours earlier.
He did not panic.
That frightened her more.
“You expected this.”
“I hoped for it.”
“Alexander.”
“She exposed her position.”
Grace stared.
“There is a photo of Lily’s bedroom window.”
“And now federal agents can trace the metadata.”
“She could shoot through that window before they arrive.”
Alexander’s calm vanished.
He immediately moved Lily to the basement safe room.
FBI teams swept the woods.
They found a camera.
No Evelyn.
The photo had been transmitted remotely.
A decoy.
Then Blackwood Mansion’s alarm system triggered.
Fire.
Alexander watched live security footage from the cabin.
Flames consumed the west wing.
“The archive,” Grace said.
“They’re destroying evidence.”
“No.”
Alexander zoomed in.
Smoke came from the library and underground entrance.
“They’re destroying the tunnels.”
Evelyn was erasing the battlefield.
Fire crews arrived, but an explosion shattered windows across the east wing.
Lily screamed from downstairs.
Alexander turned off the monitor.
“Stay here.”
Grace grabbed his arm.
“Where are you going?”
“The mansion.”
“No.”
“Catherine is there.”
Police had moved Catherine back to Blackwood Mansion after questioning because she insisted she could identify tunnel locations.
Grace understood immediately.
“They’re going after her.”
Alexander drove with federal agents.
By the time he arrived, half the mansion was burning.
Black smoke poured into the sky.
The home his grandfather built was dying room by room.
Alexander felt surprisingly little grief.
A house could be rebuilt.
People could not.
“Where’s Catherine?”
No one knew.
Her protection detail had been found unconscious near the service corridor.
Alexander ran toward the underground entrance.
Detective Hayes caught him.
“You are absolutely not going down there.”
“There’s another exit.”
“What?”
“The greenhouse.”
Grace’s map showed it.
Police surrounded the greenhouse.
The hidden door stood open.
Tracks led into the forest.
Catherine had been taken.
Thirty minutes later Alexander received a video.
Evelyn appeared first.
Her hair was disheveled.
Her face had lost the polished calm of the attorney he knew.
Behind her, Catherine sat tied to a chair.
“You ruined everything,” Evelyn said.
Alexander watched silently.
“You released the archive.”
“Yes.”
“You destroyed twenty years of work.”
“Good.”
Evelyn laughed.
“You think I did this for money?”
“I think you stopped knowing why you were doing it years ago.”
Her smile vanished.
“You sound like Catherine.”
The camera turned.
Catherine’s mouth was bleeding.
Evelyn continued.
“She forgot what Richard did to her. What Theodore covered up. What Charles inherited.”
Catherine whispered, “I didn’t forget.”
“You forgave them.”
“No.”
Catherine raised her head.
“I stopped giving them my life.”
Evelyn slapped her.
Alexander’s face hardened.
“What do you want?”
“You.”
“Where?”
Grace shouted from behind him, “No.”
Evelyn heard.
“Oh, Grace.”
Her smile returned.
“Still protecting him.”
“Where?” Alexander repeated.
“Blackwood Foundry.”
The oldest Blackwood factory.
Abandoned twenty years.
“Midnight.”
“You let Catherine go first.”
“No.”
“You want me? Prove she’s alive when I arrive.”
Evelyn leaned close to the camera.
“You always believed negotiation was about leverage.”
“It is.”
“No.”
Her eyes were wild now.
“It’s about pain.”
The feed ended.
Federal agents prepared a tactical operation.
Alexander agreed to wear a tracking device.
Grace objected until Detective Hayes told her they needed Evelyn physically present.
At 11:58 p.m., Alexander entered Blackwood Foundry alone.
Rain fell through holes in the roof.
Old machinery towered in darkness.
Evelyn stood on an elevated platform.
Catherine sat beside her.
Sebastian appeared from behind a steel column.
Alexander stopped.
“You two working together again?”
Sebastian smiled.
“We never stopped.”
Evelyn looked at him with contempt.
“Don’t flatter yourself.”
The alliance was breaking.
Good.
Alexander stepped forward.
“What do you want?”
Sebastian answered.
“Lily.”
Evelyn snapped, “The company.”
Catherine laughed weakly.
“There it is.”
Both looked at her.
“You never wanted the same thing.”
Alexander understood.
All he needed was pressure.
To split them.
He looked at Sebastian.
“You think Evelyn will give you Lily after I’m dead?”
Sebastian frowned.
Alexander continued.
“She wants Lily’s trust claim.”
Evelyn shouted, “Stop.”
“She needs Grace removed too.”
Sebastian looked at Evelyn.
“Is that true?”
“Don’t listen.”
Alexander smiled.
“And once you sign as Lily’s father, you become unnecessary.”
Sebastian raised his gun toward Evelyn.
“You said—”
Evelyn fired first.
The bullet struck Sebastian’s shoulder.
Chaos erupted.
Federal agents stormed the building.
Sebastian fired wildly.
Catherine kicked Evelyn’s knee.
Alexander ran toward them.
Evelyn grabbed Catherine and dragged her toward the edge of the platform.
“Stay back!”
Alexander stopped.
Below them was a thirty-foot drop.
Evelyn held the gun against her sister.
“You chose them,” she screamed.
Catherine’s eyes filled with tears.
“No.”
“You always choose them!”
“I chose to live.”
Evelyn’s hand shook.
“I did all of this for you.”
Catherine looked at her sister.
“No, Evelyn.”
Her voice became soft.
“You did it because revenge made you feel powerful.”
Evelyn’s face collapsed.
For one second.
That was enough.
Alexander lunged.
The gun fired.
Catherine fell sideways.
Alexander caught her.
Evelyn lost balance.
She went over the railing.
Alexander grabbed her wrist.
She dangled above the machinery.
Evelyn looked up, stunned.
“Why?”
Alexander strained to hold her.
“Because I’m not you.”
Agents pulled her up.
Sebastian was arrested again.
Catherine survived.
The conspiracy ended before sunrise.
Or so everyone believed.
At 4:12 a.m., while firefighters continued working at Blackwood Mansion, Grace received a call from the cabin.
Lily was gone.
Her FBI protection officer had been found unconscious.
And on Lily’s bed sat the silver bracelet that had started everything.
Beside it was a note.
A daughter belongs with her father.
Sebastian had been captured.
Evelyn was in custody.
Which meant someone else had taken Lily.
May you like
Someone they had forgotten.
Marcus Vale.
