CHAPTER 6: THE GIRL IN THE FOREST
Rain fell over Blackwood Manor before dawn.
The estate, usually immaculate, looked like the aftermath of a battlefield.
The east wing still smoldered.
Police officers moved through the wreckage with flashlights.
Forensic teams collected evidence from every corner of the property.
Inside the study, Victor had not slept.
On his desk lay two objects that refused to fit together.
Elena's journal.
The forensic report.
One claimed Elena had sacrificed everything to protect their children.
The other claimed she had murdered Arthur Harris only hours earlier.
Both could not be true.
Unless...
Someone had stolen Elena's identity.
"Sir."
The security captain entered again.
"We found something near the north forest."
Victor looked up.
"What?"
"A fresh campsite."
"Someone has been living there."
Ten minutes later, Victor, Lily, and four armed guards stood at the edge of the Blackwood Forest.
The trees surrounded the mansion like a dark ocean.
Victor rarely entered them.
His grandfather had once forbidden anyone from building beyond the tree line.
When Victor asked why, the old man had answered only:
"Some secrets belong beneath the roots."
At the time, Victor thought it was another family legend.
Now, nothing about his family's past seemed like a legend anymore.
The campsite was hidden beneath thick branches.
It was astonishingly clean.
A sleeping bag.
A portable water filter.
Medical supplies.
A pair of children's books.
And a sketchbook.
Victor opened it.
Every page contained drawings of Blackwood Manor.
The west wing.
The ballroom.
The hidden greenhouse.
Even the underground elevator Ethan had opened.
Whoever lived here knew the estate better than most of the servants.
Then Victor reached the last drawing.
His breath caught.
It was a portrait of Ethan.
Standing beside a teenage girl.
She appeared about sixteen years old.
Long black hair.
A white rose pendant.
Written beneath the drawing were two words.
My Brother.
Lily whispered,
"Emma..."
Victor turned the page.
There was another sketch.
This one showed Victor himself.
Sleeping at his desk.
Someone had drawn it with incredible detail.
Including the scar on his left hand.
Only one conclusion was possible.
The artist had been inside the mansion.
Watching him.
One of the guards suddenly shouted.
"Movement!"
Everyone spun toward the trees.
A shadow darted between the trunks.
Fast.
Too fast.
Victor ran without hesitation.
The figure leaped over fallen logs with practiced ease.
Victor followed.
Branches whipped against his face.
Rain made the ground slippery.
The chase continued deeper into the forest.
Then...
The figure stopped.
A young woman stood in the clearing.
Seventeen.
Maybe eighteen.
Long dark hair soaked by the rain.
Around her neck hung a silver white-rose pendant.
Exactly like the one in the drawing.
Victor slowly lowered his weapon.
"Emma?"
The young woman's eyes widened.
For a brief second...
Pure emotion crossed her face.
Hope.
Pain.
Recognition.
Then it vanished.
She took one step backward.
"Don't."
Victor's voice shook.
"If you're Emma..."
"I'm your father."
Tears filled the girl's eyes.
"I know."
Victor felt the world stop turning.
"You..."
"You know who I am?"
"I've always known."
Neither of them moved.
Years of stolen life stood between them.
Victor wanted to embrace her.
But the fear in her eyes held him back.
"You've grown..."
The words sounded painfully small.
Emma gave a sad smile.
"So have you."
Victor laughed bitterly.
"I missed your first word."
"Your first step."
"Every birthday."
"I'm sorry."
Emma slowly shook her head.
"It wasn't your fault."
The exact same words Elena had written in her journal.
Victor's eyes filled with tears.
"Where's your mother?"
Emma's expression changed instantly.
"You have to leave."
Victor frowned.
"What?"
"They know I'm here."
"Who?"
Emma looked into the trees.
"They're already watching."
A red laser dot suddenly appeared on Victor's chest.
Then another.
Then another.
Snipers.
Victor shouted,
"DOWN!"
A rifle cracked through the forest.
The first bullet shattered a tree inches from Emma's head.
Chaos erupted.
Guards returned fire.
Emma grabbed Victor's arm.
"This way!"
She pulled him toward a narrow ravine hidden by thick vines.
Lily carried Ethan as the group jumped into the rocky trench.
Bullets tore through branches overhead.
Someone wanted all of them dead.
The ravine led to an old storm tunnel beneath the estate.
Emma navigated it effortlessly.
"You know this place?"
"I grew up here."
Victor stared at her.
"You... lived underground?"
Emma nodded.
"Sometimes."
"Sometimes in the forest."
"Sometimes somewhere else."
Victor's heart broke a little more with every answer.
They finally reached an abandoned maintenance chamber.
The shooting had stopped.
Emma leaned against the wall, breathing heavily.
Victor studied her face.
She looked so much like Elena that it hurt.
The same eyes.
The same smile.
Even the tiny birthmark near her left ear.
He remembered kissing that birthmark in the delivery room.
A memory he had buried so deeply he believed it never happened.
It had been real.
Emma had been real all along.
Ethan walked toward her.
Without fear.
Without hesitation.
He smiled.
"I told Daddy you were real."
Emma knelt before him.
"Hi, little brother."
Ethan hugged her immediately.
Victor couldn't stop the tears that rolled down his face.
His children.
Together.
For the first time in sixteen years.
Emma closed her eyes as she hugged Ethan.
"I've waited my whole life for this."
Victor quietly asked,
"Who raised you?"
Emma hesitated.
Then answered.
"Mom."
Victor's heart leaped.
"Elena's alive?"
Emma nodded.
"Yes."
"Where is she?"
Emma's face turned pale.
"I don't know anymore."
Victor frowned.
"What do you mean?"
"They took her."
"When?"
"Three nights ago."
Silence.
Victor's stomach tightened.
"Who took her?"
Emma whispered two words.
"The Raven."
Victor took out the brass coin Arthur Harris had given him.
"The Black Raven?"
Emma stared at it.
"No."
"There isn't just one."
"There are twelve."
Victor frowned.
"Twelve what?"
Emma looked directly into his eyes.
"Twelve families."
"They built Blackwood Manor."
"They built your company."
"They built your fortune."
Victor's blood ran cold.
"My family?"
Emma nodded slowly.
"The Blackwoods were one of the Twelve."
"But Grandpa betrayed them."
Victor struggled to process the words.
"My father never told me."
"He tried."
Emma answered quietly.
"They killed him before he could."
Victor remembered.
His father had officially died of a heart attack.
Now...
Nothing seemed certain.
Suddenly, Emma's expression changed.
She reached into her backpack.
Pulled out a folded map.
And handed it to Victor.
"You have forty-eight hours."
"What happens then?"
"They'll activate the inheritance."
Victor looked confused.
"I already inherited everything years ago."
Emma shook her head.
"No."
"You inherited the money."
"What activates in forty-eight hours..."
"is something your grandfather hid beneath Blackwood Manor."
Victor unfolded the map.
It showed a massive underground structure extending far beyond the mansion.
Much larger than the bunker that had just exploded.
At the center, circled in red, were three handwritten words.
THE FINAL VAULT
Before Victor could ask another question...
A tiny red light began blinking beneath Emma's jacket.
She looked down.
Her face drained of color.
"No..."
Victor frowned.
"What is it?"
Emma slowly pulled back the fabric.
Attached to her belt was a small black device.
A digital timer.
00:59
00:58
Victor's eyes widened.
"It's a bomb."
Emma looked at him with tears in her eyes.
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"They've always known where I am."
END OF CHAPTER 6
