Chapter 13 - The Final BetrayalThe news reached the estate before sunset.
Gideon Harland had escaped during a transfer between police facilities. The officers transporting him claimed that another vehicle had blocked the road, creating confusion long enough for an accomplice to open the rear door.
By the time backup arrived, Harland had vanished.
The authorities issued a regional alert.
Marcus doubled security around the estate, placed officers near every entrance, and moved Rosa, Nora, Isabella, and Theo into the guarded west wing.
I refused to leave them.
Not after everything that had happened.
Nora sat beside me in the library, drawing pictures with a box of colored pencils.
She had asked for the rabbit she had lost during the kidnapping. Marcus found it inside the maintenance van, damp but intact.
She was drawing four people holding hands beneath a large yellow sun.
"Who are they?" I asked.
"Mama, me, you, and Mr. Theo."
I smiled faintly.
"Where is Isabella?"
Nora added another figure.
"There."
Then she drew a house.
"That's our home."
I stared at the picture.
The drawing was crooked, the windows uneven, and the people had enormous heads.
But there was something in it that I hadn't seen in my own house for years.
Safety.
I hoped I had not destroyed it by promising more than I could deliver.
My phone rang.
Marcus.
"Sir, you need to see this."
He had found a security recording from the evening before my father's death.
It showed Harland entering the main house at 8:14 p.m. He carried a leather bag and went directly to my father's bedroom.
Twenty-three minutes later, he left.
At 8:42, Dr. Voss entered.
At 9:17, the household lights flickered.
Then the footage stopped.
When the system restarted, the hallway was empty.
The next morning, my father was found unconscious.
He died three days later.
I watched the recording twice.
"Why wasn't this in the original investigation?"
"The footage was deleted from the primary server. We recovered it from an older backup."
"Can you identify what Harland carried?"
"Not yet."
Marcus zoomed in on the screen.
A label on the bag became visible.
It belonged to a medical supplier that had closed years earlier.
The same supplier appeared in the doctor's financial records.
My stomach tightened.
"We need to find out what was in that bag."
Marcus nodded.
He was about to leave when the lights went out.
The library fell into darkness.
Nora gasped.
I pulled her close.
"Stay beside me."
Outside, an alarm began ringing.
Then a voice came over the internal speaker.
"Mr. Moretti, please proceed to the main hall."
Harland.
Every muscle in my body tensed.
The speaker crackled again.
"If you want your sister to remain alive, come alone."
I looked at the door.
Nora clutched my sleeve.
"Is the bad man here?"
I crouched in front of her.
"Listen to me, sweetheart. Stay with your mother and the guards. Don't open the door for anyone unless Marcus is with them."
She nodded, frightened but obedient.
I hurried toward the main hall.
Marcus intercepted me at the staircase.
"He's inside the property," he whispered. "The security system was overridden from the control room."
"Where is he?"
"We don't know."
We moved toward the hall together.
The doors stood open.
On the floor lay a single envelope.
I recognized the handwriting immediately.
Harland's.
Inside was a photograph of Isabella sitting in the greenhouse six years earlier. She looked frightened, with her hands tied behind her back.
Behind her stood my father.
He was alive.
And he was holding a gun.
I stared at the image, unable to understand what I was seeing.
On the back of the photograph was a message.
Your father made a deal with me. Ask Isabella what he promised in exchange for Theo's life.
I turned.
Isabella stood at the top of the staircase.
Her face was white.
"You knew about this photograph," I said.
She slowly descended.
"Yes."
"What deal did our father make?"
She looked at the picture, then at me.
"After Theo was born, Father discovered that someone was trying to take him away from me. He believed it was connected to the loans and the northern property."
"Who?"
"Harland."
"Why would he want a baby?"
"Because Theo was the beneficiary of the trust. If Theo disappeared, the inheritance could be challenged."
I looked at the photograph again.
"And our father?"
"He offered Harland a bargain. He agreed to conceal the financial crimes until Theo was safe, provided Harland stopped trying to seize the property."
"But Harland didn't stop."
"No."
Isabella's voice trembled.
"And when Father realized Harland had broken the agreement, he threatened to expose him. That was when Dr. Voss became involved."
I felt sick.
My father had been trying to protect the children, even while his own judgment and fear prevented him from bringing the truth into the open.
The photograph was not proof that he had threatened Isabella.
It was proof that the entire family had been trapped in a series of desperate bargains.
I looked toward the darkness beyond the hall.
"Harland wants the original trust."
"Yes."
"Then why hasn't he taken it?"
Isabella stared at me.
"Because he knows you will never sign the transfer while the children are alive."
A sound came from the upper corridor.
Footsteps.
Slow.
Deliberate.
Then Harland's voice drifted from the shadows.
"Your sister is finally telling the truth."
He stepped into the light.
He held a small pistol in one hand and a thick envelope in the other.
Marcus raised his weapon.
Harland smiled.
"Don't be foolish. I only need five minutes."
He looked at me.
"Give me the original trust, and I'll tell you what really happened to your father."
I stared at him.
"You think you can walk out of here?"
"No."
His smile widened.
"I think you'll let me."
Then a second voice spoke from behind him.
"Put the gun down, Gideon."
Everyone turned.
May you like
Rosa Bellini stood at the top of the stairs.
And beside her was Nora, clutching her mother's hand.
