Chapter 8 - The Room Beneath the HouseNobody spoke.
The note was still damp.
Someone had been here recently.
Marcus immediately checked the room.
“No exits.”
Only one door.
Isabella turned toward Nathan.
“Who wrote this?”
Nathan shook his head.
“I don't know.”
“You're lying.”
“No.”
She looked at the photograph again.
Her father.
Her mother.
Nathan's father.
Voss.
All together.
At her parents' wedding.
She had never seen it.
Why had her father kept it hidden?
Nathan pointed toward the tape recorder.
“Play it.”
Isabella pressed the button.
Static.
Then her mother's voice.
“Isabella, if you're hearing this, you're old enough to know what happened.”
Isabella covered her mouth.
Her mother's voice continued.
“Your father did not create Eclipse.”
Nathan froze.
“He inherited it.”
Isabella stared.
Her mother explained that Isabella's grandfather had built the organization decades earlier.
Her father had tried to dismantle it.
But he discovered the network had expanded beyond his control.
Worse, Nathan's father had become one of its leaders.
Then came the shocking part.
Nathan's father had once loved Isabella's mother.
Before she married Isabella's father.
The rivalry between the two families had never been purely financial.
It had always been personal.
Nathan's father believed Isabella's father had stolen his life.
So when Isabella was born, he made a vow.
He would take everything from the Hart family.
Her mother continued.
“That is why Nathan was brought into our lives.”
Isabella's breathing stopped.
“He was trained from childhood.”
“To protect.”
“To manipulate.”
“To lie.”
“He was taught that marrying you would give the Blackwoods everything.”
Nathan closed his eyes.
Isabella looked at him.
“You knew.”
Nathan whispered,
“Yes.”
The recording continued.
“But Nathan has always been different from his father.”
“He questioned orders.”
“He saved your life once when you were fifteen.”
Isabella remembered.
A car had nearly hit her.
A teenage boy had pushed her out of the street.
She never saw his face.
She had forgotten.
Nathan had not.
Her mother continued.
“If Nathan stays loyal to you, there is still hope.”
The recording ended.
Silence.
Then the tape recorder clicked again.
A second recording began.
Her father's voice.
“Eleanor warned me that someone inside our house had betrayed us.”
Isabella looked at Eleanor.
Her face was full of fear.
Her father's voice continued.
“I believe the betrayal came from the person we trusted most.”
A pause.
“If I die, do not trust Nathan's family.”
Another pause.
“Do not even trust Nathan.”
Isabella slowly turned to him.
But her father continued.
“Unless he shows you the scar.”
Nathan looked up sharply.
Isabella frowned.
“What scar?”
Nathan stepped back.
“What?”
“Your scar.”
He stared at her.
Isabella had never seen a scar on Nathan.
At least not one he had mentioned.
“Where is it?”
Nathan hesitated.
Then he removed his jacket.
He lifted his shirt.
A long scar ran across his ribs.
Isabella stared.
“What happened?”
Nathan whispered,
“Your father saved me.”
“When?”
“Seven years ago.”
Isabella's heart stopped.
That was the same year her mother supposedly died.
Nathan explained.
He had been attacked by Eclipse after refusing an order.
Isabella's father found him.
Saved him.
And asked him to protect Isabella.
Suddenly footsteps echoed outside.
Marcus raised his gun.
“Someone's coming.”
The steel door opened.
Victoria entered.
Isabella's eyes narrowed.
“You.”
Victoria raised her hands.
“I came alone.”
Nathan stepped forward.
“Why?”
Victoria looked at him.
“You really thought I wouldn't find you?”
She placed a small folder on the desk.
“Here.”
Isabella opened it.
Inside were bank statements.
Medical files.
Travel records.
And photographs of Nathan meeting Julian Voss.
Isabella's heart sank.
“When were these taken?”
“Three days ago.”
Nathan said nothing.
Victoria smiled.
“You still trust him?”
Isabella looked at Nathan.
Victoria continued.
“He's not protecting you.”
“He's negotiating with Voss.”
“He promised Voss access to the Hartwell Trust.”
“That isn't true,” Nathan said.
Victoria dropped another photograph.
Nathan signing documents.
Isabella stared.
“What is that?”
Nathan looked horrified.
“A decoy agreement.”
“You signed it.”
“To get Voss to believe I had defected.”
Victoria laughed.
“How convenient.”
Then she pulled out a final document.
A birth registration form.
Isabella's unborn child had already been registered.
But there was one problem.
The father listed was not Nathan.
Isabella stopped breathing.
The document named another man.
Victoria whispered,
“Your baby's official father is someone else.”
Isabella looked at Nathan.
His face had gone completely white.
“I didn't do this.”
“Then who did?”
Victoria smiled.
“That is the question.”
Suddenly the basement lights flickered.
Every phone in the room buzzed.
A message appeared.
THE BABY'S FATHER IS NOT NATHAN BLACKWOOD.
Then a second message:
ASK ISABELLA WHAT HAPPENED THREE YEARS AGO.
Isabella stared at the screen.
She couldn't remember anything unusual three years ago.
Until suddenly she did.
One night.
One missing hour.
May you like
One hospital bracelet.
And a man whose face she had never seen.
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