Chapter 7 - Someone Inside Calder House
The third message disappeared before it finished loading.
Victor called the number.
Disconnected.
Vincent traced it.
Nothing.
By morning, Victor sat across from Graham in a federal interview room.
“You look tired,” Graham said.
“You look old.”
Graham smiled.
“I am.”
“Who was the intended target?”
Graham’s smile vanished.
“So you received the messages.”
“Answer me.”
“I didn’t send them.”
“I know.”
That surprised him.
Victor leaned forward.
“Elias’s crash. Who was supposed to be in the car?”
Graham studied him.
“You.”
Victor said nothing.
“Elias borrowed a vehicle registered through one of your holding companies. The person watching him believed you were inside.”
“Who hired them?”
“I did.”
Victor’s expression hardened.
“But I ordered surveillance, not an accident.”
“Convenient.”
“It’s true.”
“Who changed the order?”
Graham looked toward the observation glass.
“Your father.”
Victor stared.
“My father had been dead twenty years.”
“Not your biological father.”
Victor felt the room narrow.
“What?”
Graham smiled sadly.
“Now we finally reach the secret Elias died protecting.”
Victor stood.
Graham continued.
“Your mother was already pregnant when she married my brother.”
Victor sat again.
Slowly.
“You’re lying.”
“Ask Mrs. Conti.”
Victor’s hands went cold.
“Who?”
“Your biological father is alive.”
Victor stared at him.
“Name.”
Graham leaned forward.
“Samuel Hale.”
Victor’s mind rejected it.
Hale.
He looked through the glass.
Vincent stood outside.
Graham watched recognition happen.
“Yes.”
Victor’s voice dropped.
“Vincent?”
“Your half brother.”
Victor left without another word.
Vincent saw his face.
“What happened?”
“Who is Samuel Hale?”
Vincent froze.
Victor knew.
“You knew this too.”
“My father told me three years ago.”
Victor laughed bitterly.
“Of course.”
“Victor—”
“Is he alive?”
“Yes.”
“Where?”
Vincent hesitated.
“Virginia.”
Victor stared at him.
“Take me there.”
Samuel Hale lived in a modest house surrounded by maple trees.
He was seventy-six.
When he opened the door and saw Victor, he began crying.
Victor felt nothing.
Or too much.
“Come inside.”
“No.”
Samuel nodded.
“I deserve that.”
“Are you my father?”
“Yes.”
The answer struck with strange emptiness.
“Did you order someone to follow Elias?”
Samuel’s confusion appeared genuine.
“No.”
“Did you try to have me killed?”
“No!”
Victor watched him carefully.
Samuel gripped the doorframe.
“I spent forty years regretting that I didn’t claim you. I would never hurt you.”
“Then who knew?”
“About you?”
“Yes.”
“Your mother. Me. Your legal father. Graham.”
“Anyone else?”
Samuel thought.
“One person.”
“Who?”
“Margaret Conti.”
Victor closed his eyes.
Mrs. Conti again.
They returned to Calder House.
Mrs. Conti was gone.
Her room had been emptied.
On her bed sat an envelope.
Victor opened it.
Inside was a birth certificate.
His.
Father: Samuel Hale.
And beneath it was another letter from Elias.
Vic,
If you find this, Conti finally told you the truth.
Don’t hate her.
She promised your mother she would protect you from Samuel.
Victor frowned.
From Samuel?
He continued.
Samuel loved your mother.
But love doesn’t automatically make someone safe.
There’s something Vincent doesn’t know about his father.
Victor looked at Vincent.
“What?”
Vincent shook his head.
Victor continued reading.
Ask Samuel where he was the night your mother died.
Victor felt the floor shift.
His mother had died when he was nineteen.
Officially, a fall down the stairs.
He looked at Vincent.
“We’re going back.”
Samuel did not answer the door.
It stood slightly open.
Victor entered.
“Samuel?”
Silence.
A lamp burned in the living room.
Tea remained warm on the table.
Then Victor saw an old cassette recorder.
A note rested beside it.
FOR VICTOR AND VINCENT.
Vincent pressed play.
Samuel’s voice filled the room.
“If you’re hearing this, Margaret finally decided the truth was safer than silence.”
Vincent sat down.
Samuel continued.
“Victor, your mother did not die because of me.”
Victor closed his eyes.
“But she did die because of the secret surrounding your birth.”
Footsteps sounded upstairs.
Victor and Vincent looked toward the staircase.
Samuel’s recording continued.
“And the person who was with her that night has been inside Calder House ever since.”
May you like
A floorboard creaked above them.
Someone was still in the house.
