Chapter 8 - The Secret Written in His NameIsa waited until the house fell silent.
Rhett was downstairs arranging his men. Anton had stationed guards outside her room, and every entrance was being watched. By every reasonable measure, she was safe.
Which was exactly why she knew she had to leave.
She took the brass key, the photograph, and her phone. Then she removed the plain black uniform hanging in the wardrobe and changed into it, tying her hair back the way she had worn it during her first months in Rhett's mansion.
She had learned the household's routines over three years. She knew which service door squeaked, which corridor cameras had blind spots, and which guard always left the pantry at the top of the hour to smoke near the loading entrance.
At eleven fifty-three, she slipped through the laundry room.
At eleven fifty-eight, she was outside.
At midnight, a black sedan collected her two blocks from the gate.
The driver never turned around.
“Where are we going?” Isa asked.
“Your brother told me to bring you to him.”
“Elias?”
“Yes, ma'am.”
She looked at the driver in the rearview mirror.
“Who do you work for?”
The man smiled faintly.
“Tonight? The person who pays me to keep you alive.”
Isa reached for the door handle.
The child locks clicked.
The driver glanced at her.
“I'm afraid that's not the answer you were hoping for.”
He pressed a button on the dashboard.
A partition rose between the front and rear seats.
Isa drew the small pocketknife she had hidden in her sleeve, but before she could act, the car turned sharply into an underground garage. Two men opened the rear door and seized her arms.
She fought.
One man took a blow to the nose. The other cursed as she twisted free and ran toward the elevator.
She nearly reached it.
Then a third man stepped out of the shadows and struck her across the back of the head.
Darkness swallowed the garage.
When Isa woke, she was sitting in a wooden chair inside a room she recognized from childhood.
Her father's study.
The room had been preserved almost exactly as it was before the fire. A green desk lamp sat beside a stack of old books. The curtains were drawn. On the wall hung the photograph of her family that she had not seen since the night her father died.
Conrad Valon sat behind the desk.
“Welcome home, Isadora.”
She pulled at her restraints.
“Where's my brother?”
“Still alive. For now.”
“Where's Rhett's mother?”
Conrad smiled.
“Still asking the wrong questions.”
He placed a document on the desk.
The original security authorization bearing Rhett's signature.
“You've spent three years in my nephew's house looking for proof that I'm a murderer. The truth is much less dramatic. Your father was planning to betray the organization, and Rhett helped me stop him.”
“Rhett was twenty-two.”
“And eager to inherit his father's empire. He wanted to prove himself. I gave him a pen, and he signed.”
“He didn't know what it was.”
Conrad leaned back.
“Perhaps. But a signature doesn't become innocent simply because the person holding the pen was foolish.”
Isa stared at the document.
Conrad placed another item in front of her.
A hospital bracelet.
It bore her brother's name and the date of the warehouse fire.
“Elias survived the fire,” Conrad said. “He was badly injured. Your father died. Your mother vanished. Rhett inherited the organization, and I took responsibility for cleaning up the mess.”
“By trying to kill everyone who knew the truth?”
“By preserving a family that would otherwise have been torn apart.”
“You mean preserving your power.”
Conrad's expression hardened.
“Power is the only reason you're still alive.”
He nodded toward the far wall.
A door opened.
Elias stumbled into the room, his face bruised, his hands bound. A guard held a pistol against his back.
Isa surged against her restraints.
“Elias!”
Her brother looked at her, and for a moment she saw genuine terror in his eyes.
“I'm sorry,” he whispered.
Conrad placed a small recorder between them.
“Tell your sister what you told me.”
Elias swallowed.
“I gave Conrad the location of the ledger.”
Isa felt something inside her collapse.
“No.”
“I gave him the key's location too,” Elias continued. “I thought he would let you go.”
Conrad looked almost pleased.
“Families are wonderful things. Everyone believes they're acting out of love.”
Isa stared at her brother.
“Why?”
Elias could barely meet her eyes.
“Because he has someone else.”
Conrad tapped a photograph onto the desk.
It showed a teenage girl in a school uniform.
Marcus's daughter.
Then he placed a second photograph beside it.
A woman with dark hair and gentle eyes, standing in front of a white house.
Rhett's mother.
“They're both very expensive people to keep alive,” Conrad said.
Isa went cold.
The old man stood and buttoned his coat.
“You're going to help me find the original ledger. Once I have it, I'll release your brother, Marcus's daughter, and Rhett's mother.”
“And Rhett?”
Conrad paused at the door.
“Rhett is the one person I cannot afford to release.”
A guard dragged Elias away.
Isa pulled at her restraints until the rope cut into her wrists.
Conrad stopped beside her.
“One last thing, Isadora. I assume you've begun to care about my nephew.”
She refused to answer.
He bent down.
“That is unfortunate. Because when Rhett comes to rescue you, I intend to make him watch you die.”
The door closed.
Moments later, a soft mechanical click sounded beneath the desk.
Isa looked down.
Hidden inside the wooden panel was a small speaker.
And through it, she heard a familiar voice.
Rhett's.
“Isa, if you can hear me, don't react.”
She held her breath.
“I know you're in the study. I'm in the house, and I'm coming for you.”
A pause.
May you like
Then he said something that made her eyes fill with tears.
“And this time, I'm not leaving you behind.”
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