Chapter 7 - THE NIGHT OF THE FIREElena's memory returned in fragments.
A hallway.
Smoke.
A red door.
Claire's voice.
A man shouting.
And Victoria.
Always Victoria.
But Victoria claimed she hadn't kidnapped Elena.
She had saved her.
Detective Mason demanded an explanation.
Victoria finally began to speak.
“Arthur doesn't know everything about his family.”
Arthur stared at her.
“What don't I know?”
“Your father planned to kill Claire.”
Arthur went silent.
Victoria continued.
“Claire had discovered enough evidence to destroy him.”
“What evidence?”
“Bank transfers. Secret companies. Offshore accounts.”
“Then why didn't she go to the police?”
“She tried.”
“And?”
“The officer she contacted was working for your father.”
Arthur's face darkened.
Victoria continued.
“Claire knew someone was coming for her.”
“What did she do?”
“She hid Mara.”
“In the wall?”
“No.”
Victoria shook her head.
“She hid her in an old servant corridor.”
Elena's eyes widened.
“You?”
Victoria nodded.
“I found her.”
“Then why was I taken away?”
“Because the house caught fire.”
Arthur stared.
“What?”
“The west wing.”
Elena's memory sharpened.
Fire.
Smoke.
A scream.
A man.
Then darkness.
Victoria wiped her eyes.
“I got Mara out.”
“Where?”
“A small church in town.”
Arthur asked, “Then why did everyone say she died?”
“Because your father found us.”
Victoria lowered her voice.
“He threatened me.”
Arthur said nothing.
“He told me that if Mara ever returned, she would die.”
“And Claire?”
Victoria's eyes closed.
“Claire disappeared that night.”
Arthur whispered:
“You said she died.”
“I believed she did.”
Mason looked at Elena.
“What happened to you after that?”
Victoria answered.
“I left you with a family under the name Elena Marlowe.”
“For seventeen years?”
“Yes.”
“Why did I come to work here?”
Victoria shook her head.
“That wasn't my plan.”
Elena froze.
“What do you mean?”
“Your employer agency sent you.”
Elena felt cold.
“Who requested me?”
Victoria looked at Arthur.
Arthur didn't understand.
“Who hired her?”
Victoria answered:
“Thomas.”
Elena immediately remembered the groundskeeper.
Thomas had been the one to recommend her.
He had insisted she would be a perfect fit.
He had said the Vance family needed someone trustworthy.
Now Thomas was missing.
Mason ordered an immediate search.
Meanwhile, Arthur went through old family records.
He discovered a hidden ledger.
Inside were payments made eighteen years earlier.
One name repeated again and again.
THOMAS REED.
Arthur stared at it.
Thomas had worked for his father.
For twenty years.
Mason looked at the dates.
“He was paid to monitor your family.”
Arthur whispered:
“He never stopped.”
Then a call came from the police station.
Thomas had been found.
Dead.
Inside an abandoned warehouse.
No identification.
Except for one object.
A key.
Mason asked Arthur to identify it.
Arthur stared.
It was a key to a room in the Vance mansion.
The locked room nobody had opened in seventeen years.
Claire's old bedroom.
Arthur's heart pounded.
He opened it.
Inside, everything looked untouched.
A dress still hung beside the bed.
A perfume bottle sat on the dresser.
And on the mirror was a message written in lipstick.
I KNOW WHERE MY DAUGHTER IS.
Elena stepped into the room.
Her breath caught.
She recognized the handwriting.
She had seen it before.
In her childhood dreams.
She touched the mirror.
Then the door slammed behind her.
Locked.
May you like
A woman's voice whispered from the darkness:
“You finally came home, Mara.”
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