Chapter 4
Darkness swallowed the house.
Noah screamed.
Arthur moved toward the sound immediately.
“Stay down!”
Emergency lights should have activated.
They did not.
That terrified Arthur more than the blackout itself.
Someone had disabled systems that were supposed to be independent.
Daniel’s flashlight snapped on.
Then another.
“Main hallway!”
Daniel shouted into his radio.
No answer.
Only static.
Arthur pulled Maya and Noah behind a stone column near the staircase.
“Do not move.”
Maya clutched Noah.
Sofia crouched beside them.
Arthur looked at her.
“Stay with them.”
Sofia nodded.
A crash came from upstairs.
Daniel and two guards moved toward the staircase.
Arthur followed.
Daniel turned.
“You stay here.”
“My house.”
“Exactly.”
Daniel’s voice hardened.
“You hired me to keep you alive. Let me do my job.”
Arthur hated it.
But he nodded.
Then a shadow moved at the top of the stairs.
Daniel raised his light.
“Stop!”
The figure disappeared.
Daniel ran.
The guards followed.
Arthur turned back toward Maya.
Gone.
His stomach dropped.
“Maya?”
No answer.
“Noah?”
Sofia was still there.
Alone.
Arthur grabbed her shoulders.
“Where are they?”
“She pulled him toward the kitchen.”
“Why?”
“I heard something break near us. She panicked.”
Arthur ran.
The kitchen was nearly black.
Moonlight came through the windows.
“Maya!”
“Here!”
Her voice came from the pantry.
Arthur found them crouched inside.
Noah was shaking uncontrollably.
Arthur knelt.
“You’re okay.”
“No, we’re not,” Maya whispered.
Her face was pale.
“What?”
She pointed behind him.
On the kitchen counter sat a small red light.
A camera.
Arthur stared.
It was not part of his security system.
Maya’s voice shook.
“They’ve been watching us.”
Arthur stepped closer.
The device had been placed behind a decorative vase.
Daniel entered.
“We lost him.”
Arthur pointed.
Daniel saw the camera.
His face changed.
“Don’t touch it.”
“Can you trace it?”
“Maybe.”
The lights suddenly came back.
The refrigerator hummed.
The alarm panel restarted.
Arthur looked around.
Everything appeared normal again.
Too normal.
Daniel walked to the camera.
“It’s wireless.”
“Live?”
“Probably.”
Arthur stared directly at the lens.
If Victoria or Charles was watching, he wanted them to see his face.
“You made a mistake.”
Maya looked at him.
Arthur did not look away from the camera.
“You should have stayed gone.”
Daniel removed the device carefully.
A guard entered.
“Sir.”
“What?”
“We found something upstairs.”
Arthur’s expression tightened.
“What?”
“Blood.”
Maya flinched.
Daniel immediately said, “Stay here.”
This time Arthur agreed.
He was not bringing the children anywhere near it.
Ten minutes later Daniel returned.
“No body.”
“Whose blood?”
“Unknown.”
“Enough to suggest someone was hurt?”
“A few drops.”
“Where?”
“Outside Victoria’s dressing room.”
Arthur looked toward Sofia.
She had gone pale.
“What is it?”
Sofia hesitated.
“Victoria’s dressing room has another exit.”
Arthur stared.
“No, it doesn’t.”
“Yes.”
“How would you know?”
“Because your house belonged to Charles before he sold it to you.”
Silence.
Arthur felt foolish.
The estate had been purchased through an investment company six years earlier.
Victoria told him the opportunity came through a family contact.
He had renovated almost everything.
But not the original stone walls in the west wing.
Sofia continued.
“There’s a service passage behind the dressing room.”
Daniel swore.
“That explains how someone got in and out.”
Arthur looked at Sofia.
“How do you know this house?”
She looked away.
“Because I lived here.”
Maya stared.
“What?”
Sofia’s eyes filled with shame.
“Not like family.”
Her voice became quiet.
“I worked for the Whitmores.”
“When?”
“Fourteen years ago.”
Arthur felt another piece slide into place.
“You knew Victoria then.”
“Yes.”
“You knew Elena.”
Sofia nodded.
“Why didn’t Elena ever mention you?”
“Because I wasn’t allowed near her after she left Arthur.”
Arthur stepped closer.
“She didn’t leave me.”
“No.”
Sofia looked him in the eyes.
“She was taken.”
Maya covered her mouth.
Arthur’s voice turned dangerous.
“Explain.”
Sofia looked toward the children.
“I will.”
“Now.”
“Arthur—”
“Now.”
She nodded.
“Victoria had been watching you for months before Elena disappeared.”
Arthur felt sick.
“Why?”
“Charles wanted leverage over you.”
Sofia continued.
“At first, Victoria was supposed to learn about your finances. Your weaknesses. Your habits.”
“She followed me?”
“She befriended people around Elena.”
Arthur thought back.
Elena had once mentioned a woman from a wealthy family who came into the small gallery where she worked.
Arthur never cared enough to ask her name.
Sofia swallowed.
“Then Elena found out she was pregnant.”
Maya closed her eyes.
“She was happy,” Sofia said.
“She planned to tell you the night of your company dinner.”
Arthur remembered that dinner.
He had been waiting for Elena.
She never arrived.
“I called her forty times.”
“She never saw the calls.”
“What happened?”
“Victoria went to her apartment first.”
Arthur’s eyes hardened.
“Why?”
“She told Elena you were already engaged.”
Arthur stared.
“To Victoria?”
“Yes.”
“That’s insane.”
“She had photographs.”
“Fake?”
“Real photographs of you and Victoria at company events, cropped to look intimate.”
Arthur’s stomach turned.
Sofia continued.
“Elena didn’t believe her.”
“Good.”
“So Victoria changed tactics.”
Maya whispered, “What did she do?”
“She told Elena Charles had evidence Arthur was using illegal funds in his company.”
Arthur shook his head.
“I wasn’t.”
“I know.”
“She said if Elena stayed, Charles would destroy Arthur, send him to prison, and make sure the babies were taken away.”
Arthur’s hands curled into fists.
“Elena still refused.”
Maya’s voice was trembling.
“That sounds like Mom.”
Sofia gave a sad smile.
“Yes.”
“It does.”
“So what changed?”
Sofia’s expression darkened.
“Victoria threatened you.”
Maya went still.
“Me?”
“You and Noah.”
Sofia nodded.
“She told Elena accidents happen to babies.”
Arthur felt pure rage rise through him.
“She used unborn children to threaten her?”
“Charles had people follow Elena everywhere.”
“She was terrified.”
Arthur stared at the floor.
All those years he had believed Elena had chosen to vanish.
She had been trying to protect him.
And their children.
Sofia continued.
“They moved her to another state.”
“Who is they?”
“Charles.”
“Victoria.”
“And Samuel Pike.”
Arthur remembered the name from the notebook.
“What was Pike?”
“Charles’s private fixer.”
Daniel’s face hardened.
“The man upstairs?”
“I think so.”
“He’d be in his seventies now.”
“He was younger then.”
Sofia looked at Daniel.
“His son works for Charles too.”
Daniel nodded slowly.
“That could be who was here tonight.”
Arthur turned back.
“What happened after Elena left?”
“She gave birth under another name.”
“She raised Maya and Noah?”
“For four years.”
Maya’s face crumpled.
“I remember her.”
Noah looked down.
“I don’t.”
Maya took his hand.
“You were little.”
Arthur forced himself to continue.
“How did Elena die?”
Sofia’s eyes filled.
“Officially?”
“Yes.”
“Car accident.”
Arthur looked sharply at Maya.
Maya had told him their aunt Marisol also died in a car accident.
Sofia saw his expression.
“You noticed.”
“Two sisters.”
“Same cause.”
“Five years apart.”
Sofia nodded.
“Neither was an accident.”
Noah began crying.
Maya pulled him close.
Arthur looked toward the children and immediately softened.
“That’s enough.”
“No,” Maya said.
Arthur turned.
Her face was wet.
“I want to know.”
“Maya—”
“I’ve spent my whole life with people deciding what I’m allowed to know.”
Her voice broke.
“Stop doing that.”
Arthur felt ashamed.
He nodded.
Sofia continued.
“Elena started gathering evidence against Charles.”
“What evidence?”
“Financial records.”
“Payments.”
“Names.”
“She wanted to prove what they did to her.”
“And then?”
“She called me.”
“She said she was coming back to Arthur.”
Arthur closed his eyes.
The pain hit instantly.
“She was coming back?”
“Yes.”
“She had decided she’d rather risk everything than keep you from your children.”
Arthur could barely breathe.
“Three days later, she died.”
Maya’s tears fell silently.
“What happened to us?”
“Marisol took you.”
“Why don’t I remember her?”
“You do.”
Maya frowned.
“You called her Aunt Mari.”
Maya’s eyes widened.
A memory had returned.
A small kitchen.
A woman singing.
Warm hands braiding her hair.
“Oh my God.”
Sofia cried too.
“Marisol hid you.”
“She moved constantly.”
“Then Charles found her.”
Arthur looked at the notebook.
“Five years ago.”
Sofia nodded.
“That accident happened two days after Marisol called me.”
“What did she say?”
“That she had found Elena’s recording.”
Arthur stared.
“The recording you mentioned?”
“Yes.”
“Where is it?”
Sofia reached inside her coat again.
This time Daniel watched carefully but allowed it.
She removed a small flash drive.
Arthur stared at it.
“Elena made this?”
“A copy.”
“The original disappeared with Marisol.”
“What’s on it?”
Sofia’s hand shook as she held it.
“Elena talking.”
“About Charles?”
Sofia looked at Arthur.
“About Victoria.”
Arthur took the drive.
His fingers closed around it.
Then Daniel’s phone buzzed.
He checked the screen.
His expression hardened.
“What?”
“We have a location on Victoria’s car.”
“Where?”
Daniel looked toward the front windows.
“She’s not running anymore.”
Arthur waited.
Daniel turned the phone toward him.
A map showed the vehicle less than three miles away.
Stopped.
Arthur frowned.
“Why would she stop there?”
Sofia stepped closer.
She looked at the map.
Then all the blood drained from her face.
“No.”
“What?”
Sofia pointed at the location.
“That’s Grace Bennett’s house.”
Maya froze.
“Our house?”
Daniel nodded.
Sofia looked at Arthur in horror.
“If Victoria is there, she isn’t hiding.”
“Then what is she doing?”
Sofia’s answer came quickly.
“Looking for whatever Grace left behind.”
Maya suddenly gasped.
“The box.”
Arthur turned.
“What box?”
“The one Grace gave me before she died.”
“You said you had documents.”
“Yes.”
“Where are they?”
Maya went pale.
“I didn’t bring everything.”
Arthur already knew.
“Where?”
“At the house.”
Sofia whispered, “Victoria knows.”
Arthur grabbed his jacket.
Daniel stopped him.
“We do this carefully.”
Arthur’s eyes were cold.
“We do it now.”
Twenty minutes later, three vehicles moved through the dark streets.
Maya and Noah remained at Arthur’s estate with trusted guards.
Arthur hated leaving them.
But Daniel insisted.
Sofia came with Arthur.
She knew Grace’s neighborhood.
When they turned onto the narrow street, they immediately saw smoke.
Arthur’s stomach dropped.
“No.”
Flames poured from the side windows of Grace Bennett’s house.
Maya’s childhood home was burning.
Fire crews had not arrived yet.
A black sedan accelerated from the curb.
Daniel pointed.
“That’s Victoria’s car!”
One security vehicle followed it.
Arthur jumped out.
“Arthur!”
Daniel shouted.
But Arthur was already running toward the house.
Sofia grabbed him.
“You can’t go in!”
“There could be evidence!”
“You’ll die!”
Then Arthur saw something near the porch.
A woman.
Lying on the ground.
He ran toward her.
She was alive.
Barely.
Her face was bruised.
Her gray hair was wet with blood.
Sofia screamed.
“Oh my God!”
Arthur looked at her.
“You know her?”
Sofia dropped beside the woman.
“Yes.”
Her hands shook.
“This is Grace Bennett.”
Arthur stared.
“But Maya said Grace died three weeks ago.”
Sofia looked up, stunned.
The woman on the ground slowly opened her eyes.
Her lips moved.
Arthur leaned close.
“What?”
Grace whispered three words.………….
