Chapter 8
Mason pushed the vehicle past ninety miles an hour.
Police units approached the Sterling estate from three directions.
Richard held Sophie beside him in the back seat.
Adam sat on her other side, silent and tense.
“Why did Vanessa call you husband?” Sophie asked.
“She wanted to make me angry.”
“Are you married to her?”
“No.”
“Are you still married to Mommy?”
Richard looked at the dark phone screen.
“Yes.”
The answer brought more pain than comfort.
Elizabeth was alive.
But the woman he had married had entered his life while legally tied to Daniel.
Nothing about their past was simple.
Still, none of that mattered while Vanessa held her.
The estate gates were closed.
Police vehicles crowded the road outside.
Thomas had restored limited access to the security system, but Vanessa had activated steel storm barriers across the doors and windows.
“She knows the house better than we thought,” Mason said.
“She lived there for ten months,” Richard answered.
Adam examined the building.
“The old tunnel from the greenhouse may still connect to the basement.”
Richard looked at him.
“How do you know?”
“Evelyn showed me plans of every Sterling property.”
“Why?”
“She said they would belong to me after you died.”
Sophie grabbed Richard’s hand.
“You’re not going to die.”
“No, sweetheart.”
Adam looked away.
Richard realized his son had been raised to expect his father’s death.
Perhaps to cause it.
“Where is the tunnel entrance?” Mason asked.
“In the woods behind the west wall.”
Mason ordered officers to surround it.
Richard stopped him.
“If Vanessa sees police enter, she may hurt Elizabeth.”
“She already expects us.”
“She expects the obvious entrances.”
Adam nodded.
“The tunnel splits beneath the greenhouse. One branch reaches the wine cellar. The other ends behind the library fireplace.”
Richard remembered Maria being locked in the wine cellar.
Vanessa had known about the tunnel.
“Take the library route,” he said.
Mason turned to Sophie.
“She should stay with an officer.”
Sophie shook her head.
“No.”
Richard crouched before her.
“I need you somewhere safe.”
“You said that before you went upstairs.”
The accusation was quiet, but it struck him deeply.
He had left her with Thomas.
Vanessa had taken her.
“I was wrong,” Richard said. “But this time, Adam will stay with you.”
Adam frowned.
“I’m coming inside.”
“You saved her at the laboratory. Now I need you to protect her again.”
“I spent my life hidden because other people decided what I needed.”
Richard did not argue.
“You’re right. I’m asking, not ordering.”
Adam looked at Sophie.
She reached for him.
“Please?”
He sighed.
“All right.”
Richard placed them in an armored police vehicle with two officers.
He gave Sophie his watch.
“You can hear me through this.”
“Promise you’ll come back.”
“I promise.”
He joined Mason near the tree line.
Daniel and Caroline had arrived with another police team.
Richard blocked their path.
“You are not entering my home.”
Daniel spoke first.
“Elizabeth may trust my voice.”
“She may also hate you for abandoning her.”
“She will hate both of us.”
Richard could not deny it.
Caroline looked toward the house.
“Vanessa may have exposed Elizabeth to the same compound again. I can recognize the symptoms.”
Mason allowed Caroline to join the entry team.
Daniel stayed with the vehicles.
They found the tunnel beneath a collapsed stone bench.
Adam’s directions were correct.
Mason led the way with two officers.
Richard and Caroline followed.
The passage smelled of damp soil.
Halfway through, Richard’s watch transmitted Sophie’s voice.
“Daddy?”
“I hear you.”
“There’s a lady outside the car.”
Richard stopped.
“What lady?”
“She looks like Grandma.”
Evelyn.
Mason radioed the officers.
No response came.
Richard heard a door opening through the watch.
Then Sophie shouted.
“Don’t touch Adam!”
A struggle followed.
Richard turned back.
Mason grabbed his arm.
“The units outside will handle it.”
“They’re not answering.”
Richard ran through the tunnel toward the entrance.
Adam’s voice came through the watch.
“Richard, keep going!”
A sharp noise followed.
Then Evelyn screamed.
Richard froze.
Adam spoke again.
“We’re safe. I locked her outside the vehicle.”
Mason contacted another unit.
Officers confirmed that Evelyn had somehow slipped her handcuffs during transport and escaped from a medical van.
Adam had recognized her approaching and activated the vehicle’s emergency lock.
Police recaptured her.
Richard exhaled.
“I’m coming back.”
“No,” Adam said. “Get our mother.”
Our mother.
Richard looked at Caroline.
She had heard it too.
They continued toward the library.
Behind the fireplace, Mason found a release lever.
The stone panel opened silently.
The library was empty.
A trail of broken glass led into the hallway.
Richard heard Vanessa speaking upstairs.
“You always thought you were better than me.”
Elizabeth answered, but her voice was weak.
“I thought you were my friend.”
Richard moved toward the stairs.
Caroline caught his arm.
“Wait.”
A small device was fixed beneath the railing.
A motion sensor.
Vanessa had prepared the house.
Mason disabled it.
They climbed slowly.
Vanessa’s voice came from Elizabeth’s bedroom.
“You had everything. A husband. A child. A family name.”
“I never wanted the name.”
“But I did.”
Richard reached the half-open door.
Elizabeth sat against the bed.
Vanessa stood near the window holding a kitchen knife.
There was no blood, but Elizabeth’s face was pale.
A syringe lay on the carpet.
Caroline whispered, “She injected her.”
Richard moved before Mason could stop him.
He entered with his hands visible.
“Vanessa.”
She spun around and pressed the knife against Elizabeth’s shoulder.
“Where is Sophie?”
“Safe.”
“Where is the drive?”
“Released to the authorities.”
Vanessa laughed bitterly.
“Then Evelyn lost.”
“You both lost.”
“No, Richard. I still have the one thing you want.”
Elizabeth lifted her head.
Their eyes met.
So many emotions crossed her face that Richard could not separate them.
Love.
Fear.
Guilt.
Grief.
“You came,” she whispered.
“I’ll always come.”
Vanessa pulled her upright.
“Touching. Did she tell you she married you to destroy your family?”
“She didn’t have time.”
Elizabeth closed her eyes.
“It’s true.”
Richard forced himself to remain focused on the knife.
“We’ll discuss it later.”
“There may not be a later,” Vanessa said.
Caroline stepped into the doorway.
“What did you inject?”
Vanessa’s smile returned.
“You tell me.”
Caroline looked at Elizabeth’s pupils.
“Richard, keep her awake.”
Vanessa raised the knife.
“One more step and she dies.”
Mason remained hidden beyond the wall.
Richard needed Vanessa to look away.
He reached into his jacket and removed a small velvet box.
Her engagement ring.
“I came home early because I planned to give you this again.”
Vanessa stared at the box.
“What?”
“I had it resized.”
Elizabeth looked at him in shock.
Richard continued.
“I knew you were angry about the wedding arrangements. I thought a private dinner might fix things.”
“You canceled the wedding.”
“I was afraid.”
Vanessa’s grip on the knife loosened slightly.
“Of what?”
“Of loving someone again.”
She wanted to believe him.
He could see it.
“Richard,” Elizabeth whispered.
Vanessa pressed the knife closer.
“Be quiet.”
Richard opened the box.
The diamond caught the light.
“You wanted the Sterling name,” he said. “You can still have it.”
Caroline stared at him as though he had lost his mind.
Vanessa’s eyes filled with hungry hope.
“You would choose me after everything?”
“I would choose Sophie’s safety.”
Her expression hardened.
“This is a trick.”
“Then take the ring and leave.”
He extended it.
Vanessa shifted away from Elizabeth.
One step.
Then another.
Richard kept his eyes on hers.
She reached for the ring.
Elizabeth suddenly dropped to the floor.
Richard seized Vanessa’s wrist.
She slashed toward him.
The blade cut his sleeve.
Mason rushed in.
Vanessa twisted free and ran toward the balcony.
Caroline dropped beside Elizabeth.
“Her pulse is slowing.”
Richard followed Vanessa.
She climbed onto the balcony rail.
“Stay back!”
“There is nowhere to go.”
“You destroyed my life.”
“You did that yourself.”
Police lights filled the grounds below.
Vanessa looked down, then back at him.
“You still don’t understand.”
“Understand what?”
“I didn’t kill Elizabeth.”
“You helped hide her.”
“Yes. But someone else gave the order.”
“Evelyn?”
Vanessa shook her head.
“Your father.”
“He’s dead.”
Her laugh sounded almost hysterical.
“Did you see his body?”
The same question Mason had asked about Evelyn.
Richard’s chest tightened.
Vanessa held up her phone.
On the screen was a live video of an elderly man sitting in Richard’s private office.
Charles Sterling.
Richard’s father.
Older.
Thinner.
Alive.
Charles looked into the camera.
“Bring Elizabeth downstairs, son.”
Richard stared at the screen.
Vanessa smiled.
“The family reunion is not over.”
A gunshot sounded from inside the house.
Richard turned.
Vanessa jumped from the railing onto the roof below and disappeared.
He rushed back into the bedroom.
Caroline was holding pressure against Mason’s shoulder.
One of Vanessa’s hidden men had fired through the doorway before fleeing.
Elizabeth lay motionless beside the bed.
Richard dropped to his knees.
“Elizabeth.”
Caroline checked her pulse.
“She’s alive, but barely.”
Richard lifted his wife.
A voice came through the house speakers.
His father’s voice.
“Bring her to the study, Richard. Or the doors remain sealed until the compound finishes its work.”
May you like
Caroline looked at the air vent.
A faint mist had begun to enter the room.
