Chapter 14 - The Woman Who Knew the TruthStallone refused to believe it.
His wife had planned the crash?
No.
The woman in the recording had been terrified.
She had been trying to protect her children.
Helen sat at the desk.
“I was wrong about her.”
“Then explain.”
“Your wife discovered Daniel.”
“Yes.”
“She also discovered another account.”
“Whose?”
“Hers.”
Stallone frowned.
Helen explained.
His wife had created a second trust account years earlier.
Money was moved into it secretly.
Not for herself.
For Adam.
For Noah.
For a future where the family could escape the business and the people controlling it.
Daniel found the account.
He threatened her.
She planned to disappear.
Not die.
Disappear.
The crash was supposed to be staged.
But someone changed the plan.
“Who?”
Helen looked at the door.
“Your father.”
Stallone's father shook his head.
“I only changed one thing.”
“What?”
“I removed the explosives.”
Stallone stared.
“Explosives?”
“The crash was supposed to destroy the car completely.”
His wife had planned to fake her death and escape with the children.
But the plan went wrong.
Daniel found them.
He attacked the vehicle.
The crash killed her.
Noah survived.
Adam had already been hidden.
Stallone's father tried to cover everything to protect the family.
And every lie created another lie.
The missing recordings.
The false funeral.
The hidden child.
The trust accounts.
The kitchen punishment.
Everything became part of one enormous machine.
Stallone looked at Helen.
“You knew Mara was protecting Noah.”
“Yes.”
“But you allowed her to hurt him.”
“I thought she could trigger his memories.”
“You used my son.”
Helen began crying.
“Yes.”
Stallone's voice became quiet.
“You used a five-year-old to solve your family's crimes.”
Helen couldn't answer.
Then Noah spoke.
“Mama said the song was safe.”
Everyone turned.
“What did she say?”
Noah looked at the floor.
“She said if bad people came, I should remember the words.”
Stallone crouched.
“What happens after five?”
Noah thought.
“Six.”
“And seven?”
“Seven opens the door.”
The investigators exchanged glances.
A door.
Not the bank.
The nursery rhyme was a key.
Stallone suddenly understood.
The trust account was only part of the secret.
The real evidence was behind a physical door.
Seven opens the door.
He remembered the blueprint.
There was an unused service chamber behind the mansion chapel.
They ran there.
The room was locked.
No keypad.
No keyhole.
Just a painted symbol.
Seven stars.
Noah touched the wall.
A panel opened.
Inside was a recording device.
His wife's voice played.
“If my family hears this, then I failed.”
Stallone's eyes filled.
“But I need you to know one thing.”
A pause.
“I never trusted Daniel.”
Another pause.
“And I never trusted Richard.”
Stallone looked at Helen.
“So who did you trust?”
The voice answered:
“Mara.”
Mara burst into tears.
Stallone stared.
His wife continued.
“She is the only person who knew where I hid the real evidence.”
The chamber lights flickered.
Mara whispered:
“I tried.”
Stallone looked at her.
“What evidence?”
She handed him a key.
“Your wife gave me this.”
“What does it open?”
Mara pointed upward.
“The attic.”
They rushed there.
Inside a dusty trunk were dozens of files.
Contracts.
Photographs.
Bank records.
And one final envelope.
Stallone opened it.
Inside was a photograph.
It showed his wife.
Noah.
Adam.
Mara.
And one man.
Daniel.
On the back, his wife's handwriting read:
“Daniel is only the messenger.”
Stallone looked at the final document.
A list of every person paid.
At the bottom was one line.
MASTER ACCOUNT HOLDER:
STORED UNDER STALLONE FAMILY LEGACY TRUST
He stared.
“Who controls the legacy trust?”
His father answered:
“No one.”
Stallone looked up.
“That account can't exist.”
“It shouldn't.”
Then the computer beside them powered on by itself.
A video opened.
Daniel appeared one last time.
But he wasn't smiling anymore.
He looked afraid.
“Stallone,” he whispered.
“They lied to me too.”
“Who?”
Daniel looked off-screen.
Someone was standing behind him.
A shadow.
A hand rested on his shoulder.
Daniel's face drained of color.
Then the figure leaned toward the camera.
The face appeared.
Stallone stopped breathing.
May you like
It was his wife.
Alive.
