Chapter 17 - The Girls Who Refused to Separate
Ethan pressed his hand against the gunshot wound and leaned against the corridor wall.
The bullet had passed through the flesh along his side.
He was bleeding heavily, but he could still move.
The explosive timer showed seven minutes and forty seconds.
Ava stood inside the sealed kitchen.
Chloe remained outside the gates with Amelia.
The steel security barrier around the kitchen required both trust keys.
Nolan had copied Amelia’s protection system and turned it into a trap.
The brass key and silver key needed to be inserted simultaneously at opposite sides of the room.
Ava had neither.
Chloe carried the silver key.
The brass key remained inside an evidence bag near the tunnel entrance.
Ethan spoke into the phone.
“Chloe, do not enter the house.”
“But Ava needs me.”
“I will get the keys.”
“You’re hurt.”
“I’m fine.”
“You don’t sound fine.”
Amelia’s voice came through behind her.
“Ethan?”
“Nolan shot me.”
Amelia gasped.
“It passed through.”
“Get out.”
“I’m getting Ava.”
“Tell me what to do.”
Ethan looked toward the kitchen.
Smoke moved across the ceiling.
Sprinklers had failed.
Nolan disabled the fire-control system.
Police attempted to cut through the steel barrier from the courtyard.
The material resisted their tools.
“Ava needs the brass key,” Ethan said.
“Where is it?”
“Near the tunnel entrance beneath the kitchen.”
“She can reach it,” Chloe replied.
“Ava, can you hear me?”
Ava’s frightened voice came through the camera network.
“Yes.”
“The evidence bag is beside the open floor panel.”
“I see it.”
“Take the brass key.”
Ava ran toward the opening.
Flames began spreading through the pantry.
She grabbed the bag and tore it open.
“I have it.”
Ethan reached the outer side of the kitchen barrier.
He could see Ava through narrow gaps in the steel.
The silver-key lock stood on his side.
Chloe did not need to enter.
She only needed to reach Ethan.
“Bring Chloe to the west courtyard,” he told Amelia.
“No.”
Chloe’s voice was firm.
“We’re already coming.”
A police officer guided Amelia and Chloe through the evacuation line.
The timer reached six minutes.
Explosive technicians discovered devices in the east wing, garage, and chapel.
The largest device was beneath the kitchen.
Nolan intended the marble center of the house to collapse first.
Ethan slid down the wall.
His strength was fading.
Ava saw him.
“Dad!”
“I’m all right.”
“You’re bleeding.”
“Look at me.”
She did.
“Do you have the key?”
“Yes.”
“Find the brass lock near the pantry door.”
Ava moved through smoke.
She coughed.
Ethan wanted to break through the steel with his hands.
Instead, he forced himself to guide her calmly.
“Lower.”
“I can’t see.”
“Follow the wall.”
A flame dropped from the curtain.
Ava screamed and moved back.
Ethan gripped the barrier.
“Ava, listen to my voice.”
“I’m scared.”
“I know.”
“I don’t want to die here.”
“You are not going to die.”
“Promise?”
Ethan remembered promises could become another kind of lie.
He chose honesty.
“I am doing everything in my power to bring you out.”
Ava cried.
“Keep moving.”
She crawled beneath the smoke.
Her fingers found the brass lock.
“I have it.”
Chloe arrived outside with Amelia.
She saw Ethan’s blood and screamed.
Amelia rushed toward him.
Medics tried to pull Ethan away.
He refused.
“Silver key.”
Chloe removed it from her neck.
The second lock stood low beside the outer gate.
Both girls inserted their keys.
The mechanism required them to turn at exactly the same time.
“Ava,” Chloe called through the barrier.
“I’m here.”
“Like the music box.”
They had opened the hidden room together.
They understood the rhythm.
“One.”
The timer showed four minutes.
“Two.”
Smoke thickened.
“Three.”
Both keys turned.
The steel barrier unlocked.
Police pulled it upward.
Ethan entered before anyone could stop him.
He found Ava crawling near the pantry.
He lifted her.
Pain exploded through his side.
Amelia and Chloe reached them.
The family ran from the kitchen.
They crossed the courtyard as the timer reached two minutes.
Explosive technicians shouted for everyone to move beyond the outer wall.
Ethan stumbled.
Amelia took Ava.
An officer supported Ethan.
Chloe refused to release his hand.
They crossed the front lawn.
The first explosion came from the east wing.
Windows shattered outward.
The second tore through the garage.
Then the kitchen floor erupted.
A column of fire and marble rose through the center of the mansion.
The roof above the kitchen collapsed.
The family fell behind the stone wall.
Glass and debris rained across the lawn.
For several seconds, the world became smoke and sound.
Then silence followed.
The grand estate still stood, but its center had been destroyed.
The white-marble kitchen no longer existed.
Ava sat between Amelia and Chloe.
Her face was covered in soot.
Ethan looked at her.
“Are you hurt?”
She shook her head.
“You came back.”
“Yes.”
“You always come back.”
Ethan wanted to answer.
His vision darkened.
He collapsed.
When he woke, he was inside an ambulance.
Amelia sat beside him.
Blood covered her sleeve where she pressed bandages against his wound.
“The girls?”
“With Margaret and Celia.”
“Safe?”
“Yes.”
“Nolan?”
“Gone.”
Ethan closed his eyes.
Nolan escaped through the east-wing passage before the explosions.
Police found his blood near the woods but no body.
The estate fire spread for several hours.
The private chapel and guest wing were damaged.
The hidden rooms were partly destroyed.
However, most evidence had already been removed.
The mansion itself became evidence of attempted murder.
Ethan underwent surgery.
The bullet had fractured a rib but missed major organs.
He woke the following morning in a hospital room.
Ava and Chloe slept in chairs beside his bed.
Amelia stood near the window.
“You should be resting,” Ethan said.
“So should you.”
“Did the board meet?”
“No.”
“Why?”
“The federal government suspended the meeting.”
“Nolan’s directors?”
“Three were arrested.”
“The others resigned.”
Ethan looked at the twins.
“What about Sophia?”
“She saved Celia.”
“Did she escape?”
“No.”
“She surrendered.”
Sophia had remained near the underground garage after police freed Celia.
She could have used the confusion to flee.
Instead, she led explosive technicians through Nolan’s tunnel plans.
Her information helped evacuate the estate.
It did not erase her crimes, but it prevented more deaths.
“Nolan?” Ethan asked.
“Still missing.”
Amelia approached the bed.
“He sent something.”
“What?”
“A video.”
Nolan appeared standing beside the river.
His face was pale from blood loss.
Behind him rose the original Hale Meridian factory.
“You saved the house,” he said.
“Part of it.”
“You saved the girls.”
“As expected.”
“But you cannot save the truth.”
He held Charles’s ledger.
Ethan looked toward Amelia.
“The agents had it.”
“A copy.”
Nolan had obtained the original during the data-center attack.
“The ledger contains more than board payments,” Nolan continued.
“It contains proof that Charles Hale arranged the death of Victoria Hale.”
Margaret entered the hospital room in time to hear the statement.
Her face went still.
Victoria had died in a car accident eighteen years earlier.
Nolan claimed Charles caused it after discovering her role in Sophia’s adoption and Grace’s attack.
“Meet me at the original factory before sunset,” Nolan said.
“Bring Margaret.”
“Bring Amelia.”
“Bring Sophia.”
“No police.”
“Otherwise, I release the ledger and burn the only remaining evidence of Grace Marlow’s innocence.”
The video ended.
Ruiz advised them not to go.
Federal agents planned to surround the factory.
Margaret disagreed.
“He wants us together.”
“Because he wants leverage,” Ruiz said.
“No.”
Margaret stared at the frozen screen.
“He wants witnesses.”
“To what?”
“To his version of history.”
Sophia was brought under guard.
She watched the video.
“He’s dying.”
“How do you know?” Ethan asked.
“He hides pain by standing too still.”
“The gunshot in the tower?”
“Or the tunnel.”
Sophia looked toward the factory image.
“He will not leave alive.”
“Then he plans to kill everyone.”
“Yes.”
Celia begged Sophia not to go.
Sophia held her adoptive mother’s hands.
“You already risked your life for me.”
“You do not owe Amelia’s family your life.”
“They are my family too.”
Ava stood in the doorway.
She had heard.
Sophia looked at her bruised cheek.
“I don’t expect you to call me that.”
Ava’s voice remained guarded.
“Family doesn’t mean safe.”
“No.”
Sophia nodded.
“It only means we have to decide what we do next.”
At sunset, Ethan was still too weak to leave the hospital.
Ruiz intended to keep him there.
Then an emergency alert appeared.
The original factory had caught fire.
Nolan had started without them.
Live footage showed flames in the lower floors.
On the roof, a single figure stood beside the old Hale Meridian sign.
Nolan raised Charles’s ledger toward the camera.
Then he lifted another object.
A remote detonator.
The factory sat above a network of old chemical-storage tunnels.
An explosion could contaminate the river and surrounding neighborhoods.
Thousands of people were being evacuated.
Nolan called Ethan.
“You have thirty minutes.”
“What do you want?”
“All four women.”
“Margaret.”
“Amelia.”
“Sophia.”
“And Grace.”
Ethan looked toward Dr. Bennett, whose true identity had finally been restored.
Nolan wanted every woman whose life had been shaped by the clinic night.
“Why Grace?”
“She was supposed to die twenty-six years ago.”
Grace stood.
“I’m going.”
“No,” Ethan said.
“This began when I tried to stop him from taking Sophia.”
“It ends when the police stop him.”
Grace looked at the burning factory on television.
“He built his life around proving that nobody could expose him.”
“Then let me expose him to his face.”
Ethan understood.
May you like
They would go, but not under Nolan’s rules.
This time, nobody would enter alone.
