Chapter 5 - THE WOMAN ON THE PHONE
“Hello, son.”
Adrian stood frozen in the darkness.
The voice came through the phone on the factory floor below.
A voice he had not heard in six years.
A voice he had heard every morning of his childhood.
A voice that had once told him bedtime stories.
His mother's voice.
Victoria Blackwood.
Elena stared at him.
Adrian slowly walked toward the railing.
Below, the phone continued to ring.
He picked it up.
“Mother.”
There was a long silence.
Then Victoria laughed softly.
“You sound surprised.”
“You're supposed to be in Switzerland.”
“I was.”
“Where are you now?”
“Somewhere you can't find me.”
Adrian's eyes moved across the factory.
“Did you order this?”
“Order what?”
“The attack.”
“I don't know what you're talking about.”
“You know exactly what I'm talking about.”
His voice became colder.
“You were there the night Father died.”
Another silence.
This one lasted longer.
Then Victoria said:
“Your father made many enemies.”
“You were one of them?”
“Be careful.”
“Why? Are you going to kill me too?”
Elena looked at him.
Adrian had never spoken to anyone that way.
Victoria's voice changed.
“Is the girl with you?”
Adrian's gaze moved toward Elena.
“How do you know about her?”
“Because she has been looking for the truth for six years.”
Elena stepped closer.
“You know my father?”
Victoria went silent.
Adrian felt something shift inside him.
“Mother.”
“Take Elena to the old house.”
“What old house?”
“Blackwood Manor.”
Adrian's expression darkened.
The manor had been abandoned since his father's death.
No one had entered it in years.
“Why?”
“Because your father left something there.”
“What?”
“You'll know it when you see it.”
The call ended.
Adrian stared at the phone.
Elena whispered:
“What did she say?”
Adrian looked at her.
“We're going to my father's old house.”
“No.”
“Why?”
“Because that's where he died.”
Adrian stepped closer.
“Exactly.”
They left the factory before sunrise.
Marcus drove.
Elena sat in the back seat beside Adrian.
Neither of them spoke for several minutes.
The city passed outside the windows.
Finally, Elena said:
“Your mother knows my father.”
“Yes.”
“She knows he is alive.”
Adrian turned toward her.
“You believe he's alive?”
“I saw him.”
“When?”
“Six years ago.”
Adrian's eyes narrowed.
“Where?”
“In your father's study.”
She told him everything.
The syringe.
Richard.
Caleb.
Her father's disappearance.
When she finished, Adrian stared ahead.
“Why did you come to work for me?”
“To find answers.”
“You could have gone to the police.”
“They wouldn't have believed me.”
“Why not?”
“Because Richard Hale had already convinced everyone my father died in an accident.”
Adrian was silent.
Then he said:
“You should have told me.”
“I tried.”
“When?”
“Three years ago.”
Adrian looked at her.
“I left a note in your office.”
“I never saw it.”
“Someone took it.”
Adrian's jaw tightened.
“Who?”
Elena looked out the window.
“I don't know.”
The car entered the countryside.
Blackwood Manor appeared beyond the iron gates.
The house looked exactly as Adrian remembered.
Dark.
Massive.
Silent.
His father's death had happened in the library.
Adrian had never entered the room again.
They walked inside.
Dust covered everything.
Elena immediately stopped.
“What?”
She pointed toward the floor.
A footprint.
Fresh.
Adrian crouched.
Someone had been inside recently.
He raised his weapon.
Marcus signaled to the guards.
They searched the house.
Nothing.
Then Elena walked toward the library.
Adrian grabbed her arm.
“Wait.”
She looked at him.
“I know this room.”
“You've never been here.”
“Yes, I have.”
Adrian stared.
She walked to the fireplace.
Then touched the stone wall.
“There was a hidden passage.”
Adrian stepped closer.
“How do you know?”
“My father showed it to me.”
She pressed a small section of stone.
A mechanism clicked.
The wall opened.
Behind it was a narrow staircase.
Adrian stared into the darkness.
At the bottom, they found an old room.
Inside was a desk.
A locked metal box.
And a photograph.
Adrian picked it up.
His father stood beside three people.
Richard Hale.
Caleb.
And Elena's father.
But the fourth person in the photograph had been cut out.
Only a torn piece of the image remained.
Elena touched the photograph.
“Someone removed the fourth person.”
Adrian looked at the desk.
A message had been carved into the wood.
THE FIRST BETRAYAL CAME FROM THE WOMAN I LOVED.
Adrian stared at the words.
His mother.
Then a sound came from behind them.
A gun clicked.
“Don't move.”
A man's voice.
Adrian slowly turned.
The man standing in the doorway was older.
Much older.
His face was scarred.
Elena stopped breathing.
“Dad?”
The man looked at her.
May you like
And whispered:
“Run.”
