Chapter 12 - The House Where He DiedIsa returned to the past and found a door nobody had opened in twenty-five years.
The old house was smaller than Isa remembered.
She stood in the driveway, staring.
Her childhood memories came back in flashes.
Her father's toolbox.
Her mother's kitchen.
A red bicycle.
A locked basement door.
Declan parked behind her.
"You shouldn't have come alone."
"I didn't."
She looked at him.
"I came here with everything I remember."
The house had been abandoned for years.
The basement door was still there.
Locked.
Isa touched the handle.
Nothing.
Then she saw a tiny symbol carved into the wood.
A Harrow family crest.
She pressed her palm against it.
The lock clicked.
Declan stared.
"How did you do that?"
"I don't know."
The door opened.
Behind it was a narrow staircase.
At the bottom sat an old metal safe.
Isa's hands shook.
The combination came to her without warning.
Three numbers.
She entered them.
The safe opened.
Inside were letters.
Photographs.
And a black ledger.
Declan stared.
"The original."
Isa reached for it.
Before she touched it, the lights came on.
Victor Hale stood behind them.
A gun in his hand.
"Thank you."
Declan stepped in front of Isa.
Victor smiled.
"Move."
"No."
"Declan."
"I said no."
Victor raised the gun.
Isa saw something behind him.
A loose floorboard.
She remembered.
Her father used to hide emergency keys beneath it.
She kicked it loose.
A metal key slid out.
She grabbed it.
Victor turned.
Declan lunged.
The gun fell.
Security rushed in.
Victor escaped through a side door.
But he left something behind.
A second key.
Isa picked it up.
"What does this open?"
Declan examined it.
"The Vale family vault."
She stared.
"Then why did Victor leave it?"
Declan's face changed.
"He didn't."
He looked at the door.
"This is bait."
Behind them, the house exploded with alarms.
Smoke filled the basement.
Declan grabbed Isa.
They ran upstairs.
The police arrived minutes later.
The ledger was safe.
But half the pages had been torn out.
Isa looked at the damage.
"Who took them?"
Declan didn't answer.
Then he noticed the final page.
A list of names.
One was crossed out.
The next name was circled.
ISA BURN.
Underneath it:
EXECUTE AFTER MARRIAGE.
Her wedding was eight days away.
Declan looked at her.
"We cancel it."
Isa stared.
"No."
"Isa."
"That's what they want."
"They want you dead."
"Then we stop running."
She took his hand.
"We finish this."
Declan looked into her eyes.
For the first time, he wasn't protecting her from the war.
He was accepting that she was part of it.
He kissed her forehead.
"Then we do it together."
But outside, a black car waited.
May you like
Inside sat Maya.
And she was holding the missing pages.
