Chapter 8 - THE LETTERS IN THE WALL
Nathan returned to Cascade Ridge Estate the next morning.
The broken kitchen window had been covered with plywood.
Blood from Marcus’s hand remained on the wall where the two men had struggled.
Snow filled the lower garage where Marcus had escaped.
The house no longer felt empty.
It felt violated.
Elena’s team installed additional cameras and concealed officers throughout the property.
The gala had originally been planned for four hundred guests.
Elena reduced the list to one hundred and twenty.
Every guest would be screened.
Every entrance would be monitored.
Victor would still find a way inside.
He had designed much of the estate’s security system.
Rosa entered the living room carrying a small wooden box.
“I should have given you this years ago.”
Nathan looked at her.
“What is it?”
“Sarah’s letters.”
He stared at the box.
“Elena found letters in Reed’s apartment.”
“Those were not all of them.”
Rosa placed the box on the table.
“Sarah sent some here.”
Nathan opened the lid.
Dozens of envelopes filled the box.
Every one bore his name.
Every one had already been opened.
“Why do you have these?”
Rosa’s eyes filled with tears.
“Victor intercepted the first letters.”
“How did you get them?”
“I saw him burning one in the kitchen fireplace.”
Nathan waited.
“I pulled it out after he left.”
“Why didn’t you show me?”
“He knew.”
Rosa sat down.
“He called me the next morning.”
“He said my son Mateo would lose his immigration appeal if I interfered.”
Nathan’s anger rose.
“You could have told me.”
“I was afraid.”
“Sarah was trapped.”
“I know.”
Rosa pressed both hands against her face.
“I have lived with that every day.”
Nathan wanted to shout.
He wanted to ask why everyone had decided fear excused seven years of silence.
Then he remembered how fear had shaped his own final words to Sarah.
Leave.
He sat across from Rosa.
“What happened after the first letter?”
“I began watching the mail.”
“Some letters arrived before Victor’s people could take them.”
“You hid them.”
“In the wall behind the pantry.”
“Why not tell me later?”
“Victor became chairman of Mateo’s legal-aid foundation.”
Rosa looked at Nathan.
“He showed me photographs of my son leaving work.”
Nathan’s anger shifted toward Victor.
“Is Mateo safe now?”
“Yes.”
“Elena will arrange protection.”
Rosa nodded.
“I am sorry.”
Nathan opened the first letter.
Sarah had written it shortly after Lily’s birth.
She described the hospital room, Marcus’s anger, and a doctor who insisted she sign guardianship documents.
The next letter described Cedar Vale.
The next described Victor’s visits.
Letter after letter documented the years Nathan had lost.
Lily’s first birthday.
Her first day of preschool.
The night Marcus broke Sarah’s wrist.
The shelter that turned them away after Sheriff Creed called Sarah unstable.
The apartment where they hid for six months.
The pregnancy Victor forced Sarah to continue under medical supervision.
Nathan reached a letter written three months earlier.
Nathan,
I found Mother’s tape.
She left instructions in an old book at the cabin.
Victor knows a ledger exists, but he does not know where.
He believes I told Marcus.
Marcus believes Victor will make him rich.
They are beginning to distrust each other.
That may be our only chance.
The twins will arrive soon.
The clinic used stolen genetic material.
I am sorry.
I know what they took from you.
Please understand that I did not consent either.
When the boys are born, I will run.
If I fail, Lily knows how to find you.
Do not hate the children.
They are innocent.
Nathan stopped reading.
He walked to the window.
Lily had worried the truth might change whether the twins were her brothers.
Sarah had worried it might change whether Nathan could love them.
Victor’s greatest weapon had never been money.
It was shame.
He created crimes so violating that victims became afraid to face one another.
Elena entered from the security office.
“We found something in the estate plans.”
Nathan wiped his eyes before turning.
“What?”
“A maintenance tunnel.”
“I know about the tunnel beneath the garage.”
“Not that one.”
Elena spread blueprints across the table.
“This runs from the north garden to the old wine cellar.”
“My father sealed it.”
“Victor’s construction company handled the renovation.”
“He kept access.”
“Yes.”
Nathan studied the route.
The tunnel passed within twenty feet of the time capsule.
“He can enter beneath the garden.”
“He may already have.”
They searched the north garden.
Snow covered the stone paths and frozen fountains.
The time capsule lay beneath a bronze sundial engraved with the Pierce family name.
Nathan remembered burying toys, photographs, and letters there as a child.
Elena’s officers used ground-penetrating equipment.
The capsule remained underground.
The maintenance tunnel entrance was hidden behind a retaining wall.
Fresh boot prints marked the floor.
Someone had entered within the last day.
They followed the tunnel to the wine cellar.
A hidden panel opened behind a rack of bottles.
Nathan remembered Victor wandering away during Christmas dinner.
He had claimed he needed to answer a phone call.
Victor had been checking the tunnel.
Elena installed sensors without disturbing the dust.
“Now we wait.”
Nathan returned to the hospital before evening.
Ethan remained stable after surgery.
Owen slept beside Lily.
Lily was reading one of Sarah’s letters.
Rosa had brought several.
“You were a loud baby.”
Lily told Owen.
Nathan sat beside her.
“What else did your mother write?”
“She said you used to put frogs in her shoes.”
Nathan almost smiled.
“She put one in my bed first.”
“Mommy doesn’t like frogs.”
“She did when she was six.”
Lily turned the page.
A photograph slipped from the envelope.
It showed Sarah standing outside a small church with a man Nathan did not recognize.
The man held Lily as an infant.
On the back, Sarah had written a name.
Caleb Voss.
He helped us escape the first time.
Nathan showed the photograph to Elena.
She searched the name.
Caleb Voss was a former state investigator who had disappeared in 2020 while examining Cedar Vale.
He had been presumed dead.
A phone number was written beneath his name.
Elena called it.
No one answered.
Ten minutes later, Nathan’s phone received a text.
DO NOT TRUST THE GALA SECURITY TEAM.
VICTOR OWNS THE COMPANY.
I AM INSIDE YOUR HOUSE.
Nathan looked toward the hospital-room door.
A second message arrived.
ROSA IS NOT THE ONLY PERSON WHO HID LETTERS.
CHECK THE ROOM YOUR FATHER LOCKED AFTER THE ACCIDENT.
Nathan knew exactly which room he meant.
His father’s study at Cascade Ridge had remained locked for nine years.
Nathan had never found the key.
A photograph followed.
It showed the study door standing open.
A man’s shadow stretched across the floor.
May you like
Beneath the image were six words.
I FOUND WHAT VICTOR IS REALLY AFTER.
