Chapter 6 - The hidden room sat beneath the old wine cellar.Nobody knew it existed.
At least, that was what Adrian claimed.
Ruiz stood before the iron door.
Elena had been brought home under police protection.
Vanessa remained upstairs under watch.
Mrs. Howard refused to leave.
The door bore a single word.
ELENA.
Ruiz looked at Adrian.
“Why is your wife's name on a room you've never mentioned?”
Adrian stared at it.
“I didn't put it there.”
“Who did?”
He didn't answer.
Ruiz unlocked the door.
Inside was a wall of monitors.
Photographs.
Documents.
Dates.
Names.
Elena stepped into the room.
Her breath caught.
Every major event in her life was documented.
Her childhood.
Her college.
Her first job.
Her wedding.
Her pregnancy.
Even private conversations.
“How long has someone been watching me?”
Ruiz examined the screens.
“Years.”
Elena's hands trembled.
Then she saw a photograph.
It showed her mother.
Alive.
Elena stopped breathing.
“My mother died when I was seventeen.”
Ruiz stared at the image.
The photograph had been taken six months earlier.
Her mother was standing outside a café.
Older.
Alive.
Elena grabbed it.
“No.”
Adrian looked away.
Elena turned to him.
“You knew.”
“I didn't.”
“You knew something.”
Adrian's voice broke.
“I suspected.”
Ruiz searched the room.
A filing cabinet contained dozens of folders.
At the top:
HOWARD BLOODLINE RESEARCH
Inside were genetic reports.
Inheritance charts.
DNA results.
Elena read one page.
Then another.
Her face became pale.
“What is this?”
Ruiz took it.
It showed a genetic comparison.
Elena's unborn child.
And Adrian.
The result was strange.
Ruiz frowned.
“This test says Adrian is not the biological father.”
Silence.
Adrian stepped forward.
“That is impossible.”
Elena stared at him.
“What did you do?”
“I didn't do anything.”
Ruiz examined the date.
The test had been performed before Elena became pregnant.
That made no sense.
Another folder revealed a second result.
The baby was genetically linked to the Howard family.
But not through Adrian.
Through Charles.
Adrian's supposedly dead father.
Elena looked at Ruiz.
“What does that mean?”
Ruiz didn't answer immediately.
Then he found a letter.
An old handwritten note.
The child belongs to the first Howard heir. Protect the mother until the truth is revealed.
Elena looked at Adrian.
“You knew about this.”
“I knew there was something wrong.”
“You slept beside me every night while someone investigated my child.”
“I was trying to protect you.”
“By letting Vanessa live here?”
Adrian flinched.
“She threatened to expose something.”
“What?”
He whispered:
“She has proof that my father is alive.”
Ruiz's head snapped up.
“Where is he?”
Adrian looked toward the far wall.
“He's not hiding.”
“Then where?”
Adrian whispered:
“Inside this house.”
A noise came from behind them.
Everyone turned.
The secret room door slammed shut.
The lights died.
Someone screamed.
A gunshot exploded in the darkness.
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And when the emergency lights flickered back on...
Adrian was gone.
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