CHAPTER 10 — Beneath the Chandelier
Fire spread across the west hallway.
Federal agents tried to open the steel shutters, but Victor had connected them to an industrial locking system.
The mansion had become a sealed box.
Elena led Emily toward the shattered chandelier.
The marble beneath it was cracked from the impact.
Together, Thomas and two agents lifted the damaged tiles.
They found a metal compartment below the floor.
Elena used the key.
Inside was a ledger, a flash drive, and a sealed letter written by Charles Whitmore.
The letter was addressed to both daughters.
Emily and Elena,
If you are reading this, Richard Carter or his son has found a way into our family. Everything required to expose them is contained here. Trust one another, even when the truth gives you reasons not to.
Emily looked at Elena.
The anger between them had not disappeared.
But neither had the bond.
Thomas inserted the flash drive into his phone.
It contained years of transactions, recordings, names, and payments.
Judges.
Police officers.
Hospital administrators.
Board members.
Victor had built an empire by purchasing silence.
The fire reached the ballroom.
Thomas found the control system inside Victor’s office and opened the shutters seconds before the ceiling began to collapse.
Everyone escaped except Elena.
She had gone back for the ledger.
Emily saw her through the smoke.
A burning beam crashed between them.
“Elena!”
“I’m coming!”
Then the ballroom ceiling gave way.
Thomas pulled Emily outside as flames consumed the room.
Firefighters arrived and searched the mansion.
They found no body.
They also found no Elena.
For six hours, Emily waited on the lawn beneath a blanket.
At dawn, her phone rang.
Victor appeared on the screen.
Behind him sat Elena, tied to a chair.
Blood marked the side of her face, but she was conscious.
“You keep forcing me to repeat myself,” Victor said.
Emily’s voice broke.
“Where is she?”
“Somewhere your father once begged me never to go.”
Victor wanted the original ledger and the flash drive.
In exchange, he promised to release Elena.
Thomas shook his head.
“He’ll kill her whether we give him the evidence or not.”
Emily watched her sister on the screen.
Elena subtly moved one hand.
Three fingers.
Then two.
Then one.
Thomas recognized the signal.
“It’s a countdown.”
“To what?”
Elena kicked the chair backward.
The video shook.
An alarm began ringing behind Victor.
Elena had activated something inside the room.
As Victor turned away, she shouted one word into the camera.
“Harbor!”
The call disconnected.
Thomas went pale.
“I know where they are.”
But before they could leave, Detective Bennett received a federal alert.
Victor had already uploaded a copy of the signed trust transfer.
May you like
By law, he now appeared to own the entire Whitmore estate.
And he had used that ownership to place a fifty-million-dollar bounty on Elena’s location.
