Chapter 5 - The Secret Under the CarriageJulian Bennett's Last Confession
Elias extinguished the lantern.
Darkness swallowed them.
Daniel's footsteps echoed deeper into the tunnel.
“Claire!”
No answer.
“You don't understand what you're dealing with.”
Claire pressed herself against the rock wall.
Daniel continued.
“Noah isn't your brother.”
Claire's heart froze.
Elias leaned close.
“Don't believe him.”
Daniel's voice grew louder.
“He never belonged to the Bennett family.”
Claire felt something inside her crack.
Then Daniel laughed.
It wasn't the laugh of the man she knew.
It was colder.
Older.
Crueler.
“He was Victor Mason's mistake.”
Elias's expression changed.
Claire whispered, “What does that mean?”
“I don't know.”
A flashlight beam swept across the tunnel.
Elias grabbed Claire.
They ran.
The tunnel split into three passages.
Elias chose the left.
They emerged into a ravine beneath the old carriage.
Claire looked up.
The carriage was still there.
“We're underneath it.”
Elias nodded.
Then he noticed something.
A wooden support beam.
He pulled at it.
It moved.
Behind it was a hidden compartment in the carriage floor.
Claire crawled inside.
There was a second box.
This one wasn't metal.
It was wooden.
Inside:
A diary.
A key.
And three letters.
The first letter was addressed to Julian Bennett.
Claire opened it.
The handwriting belonged to Victor Mason.
You promised the boy would disappear permanently.
Claire's breathing stopped.
She opened the second.
Evelyn knows. Handle her before she reaches the authorities.
The third was unsigned.
Claire unfolded it.
Julian, I know what you did. If anything happens to me, Claire must never learn that you helped them take Noah.
Claire dropped the paper.
“My father knew.”
Elias stared at the letters.
“He didn't just know.”
“What?”
“He helped.”
Claire's face hardened.
“Then why did my father spend years telling everyone Victor murdered my mother?”
“To hide his own role.”
She opened the diary.
Most pages were damaged.
But one entry remained legible.
November 18, 1999.
Evelyn escaped with the baby. Victor wants both of them silenced. Julian says he can stop her. I don't know whether to trust my husband anymore.
Claire flipped the page.
There was another entry.
November 19.
The carriage is empty. Noah is gone. Evelyn is gone. Julian says they are both dead. I know he's lying.
Claire stared.
The diary ended there.
Then she saw something written on the inside cover.
If Claire survives, tell her to look beneath the Bennett chapel.
Elias frowned.
“The Bennett estate has a chapel?”
Claire nodded.
“Buried beneath it is a family crypt.”
“Then that's where we're going.”
A sound came from above.
Metal scraping stone.
Daniel was moving the carriage.
Elias looked upward.
“He found us.”
The old carriage shifted.
Claire realized Daniel wasn't trying to enter.
He was trying to crush the tunnel.
“Run!”
They sprinted.
The ceiling groaned.
Stone cracked.
Dust exploded around them.
Claire stumbled.
Elias pulled her forward.
Behind them, the chamber collapsed.
A deafening roar filled the tunnel.
They burst outside.
Snow fell around them.
Claire turned.
The carriage was gone beneath the rubble.
So was the evidence.
Almost.
She reached into her coat.
The wooden key was still there.
She looked at it.
Stamped into the brass were two letters.
B.C.
“Bennett Chapel,” she whispered.
Elias looked toward the mountains.
“No.”
“What?”
“That isn't what the initials mean.”
Claire stared at him.
“What do they mean?”
Elias looked toward the valley.
“Black Chapel.”
“What's Black Chapel?”
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His face went pale.
“A place your family said never existed.”
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