Chapter 5 - THE FIRST TRAITORVictor canceled the gala.
The guests were escorted out under heavy security.
But the message on the window changed everything.
Someone had entered a heavily guarded mansion without being detected.
That meant the threat was already inside.
Victor gathered his closest employees.
Twenty people stood in the great hall.
Housekeepers.
Drivers.
Security officers.
Executives.
Family members.
Everyone was a suspect.
Victor spoke calmly.
“Until we know who is responsible, nobody leaves.”
A murmur swept through the room.
Then one of the guards stepped forward.
“Mr. Blackwood, with respect, you can't hold us here.”
Victor looked at him.
“What is your name?”
“Daniel.”
“Where were you during the blackout?”
Daniel hesitated.
“In the west corridor.”
Marcus checked the security records.
“That's impossible.”
Daniel frowned.
“Why?”
“Because every camera in the west corridor went offline.”
Daniel's face tightened.
Victor immediately ordered him searched.
A phone was found in his jacket.
It contained a message.
PHASE TWO COMPLETE.
Daniel refused to speak.
Victor ordered him removed.
But Chloe stared at him.
“Wait.”
Everyone looked.
She walked closer.
“You don't know what you were helping them do.”
Daniel laughed bitterly.
“You think you're smarter than everyone?”
“No.”
Chloe looked into his eyes.
“I think you're scared.”
His smile disappeared.
“You should be.”
Then he whispered:
“She's alive.”
Victor stepped forward.
“Who?”
Daniel looked toward the staircase.
“Amelia.”
Victor's heartbeat stopped.
“What do you know?”
Daniel shook his head.
“I never met her.”
“Then how do you know she's alive?”
“Because I delivered messages.”
“To whom?”
Daniel looked at Chloe.
“To her mother.”
Nora staggered.
Victor caught her.
“You've been receiving messages?”
Nora shook her head.
“I swear I haven't.”
Daniel looked confused.
“Then someone else was using her name.”
Marcus checked the phone.
The messages had been routed through twelve proxy servers.
Then another message appeared.
STOP ASKING QUESTIONS.
A second message followed.
OR CHLOE DIES FIRST.
Nora screamed.
Victor grabbed the phone.
“What number?”
Daniel pointed.
Victor ordered Marcus to trace it.
Within seconds, a location appeared.
An old church three miles away.
Victor assembled a team.
Nora tried to follow.
Victor refused.
“You stay here.”
“That's my daughter.”
“Exactly.”
Chloe grabbed Victor's sleeve.
“I'm coming.”
“No.”
“My mother told me something.”
“What?”
“If you ever find the church, don't go through the front door.”
Victor stared.
“Why?”
“Because there isn't a church.”
The team reached the location.
There stood an abandoned church.
Its doors were chained.
Windows broken.
Victor frowned.
“It looks empty.”
Chloe pointed toward the bell tower.
“Look.”
A red light blinked.
One.
Two.
Three.
A signal.
Victor ordered the team around back.
They found a hidden entrance beneath the cemetery.
Inside was a tunnel.
The tunnel walls were covered with photographs.
Amelia.
Nora.
Chloe.
Victor.
Richard.
Every member of the Blackwood family.
Thousands of photographs.
Some had dates.
Some had names.
And some had red X's drawn across faces.
Victor found one photograph that made him freeze.
It showed him sleeping.
Taken inside his bedroom.
The date was three days ago.
Someone had been watching him from inside his own mansion.
Then Chloe pointed to another photograph.
It showed Nora.
And beside her stood an older woman.
Chloe whispered:
“She knows Grandma.”
Victor turned.
“What grandmother?”
Chloe looked at the photograph.
“Your mother.”
May you like
Victor's dead mother.
But the photograph had been taken yesterday.
