Chapter 7: The Woman Taken in the Dark
Emergency lights flickered on thirty seconds later.
Eleanor’s bed was empty.
The window stood open. Wheel marks crossed the carpet toward a private service elevator.
Adrian shouted for security, but the palace communication system was dead.
Victoria had disappeared.
Clara arrived with Malcolm and found Adrian in the medical wing.
“You should not be here,” Adrian said.
“Neither should the person who took your mother.”
They followed the wheel marks to the underground garage. A black van had left through the east gate three minutes earlier.
Malcolm accessed a secondary tracking system and discovered a signal moving toward an abandoned Blackwood textile mill outside the city.
Adrian insisted on going.
Malcolm warned him it could be a trap.
“It is a trap,” Clara said. “They want you away from the palace.”
Adrian looked at her.
“Then why take my mother?”
“To force you to choose.”
Before leaving, Clara checked Eleanor’s room and found a thread of red fabric caught beneath the bed.
It matched the lining of Victoria’s evening coat.
At the mill, they found the van abandoned.
Inside was Eleanor’s wheelchair.
There was no blood. No sign of struggle.
Only a recording device.
Adrian pressed play.
Marcus Blackwood’s voice filled the van.
“Welcome home, nephew.”
Adrian went rigid.
Marcus continued.
“At midnight, the Blackwood trustees will vote to remove you. Your mother will remain alive only if you sign away control of the palace and the foundation.”
Clara checked her watch.
They had less than two hours.
Then the van doors slammed shut.
May you like
The engine started by itself.
And the vehicle began rolling toward the river.
