Chapter 7 - The Door Beneath the Stairs
Maria stepped toward her aunt.
"Tell me."
Teresa looked at Sophie.
"Not in front of her."
"No more secrets."
Teresa closed her eyes.
"Elena Markovic isn't her birth name."
Alexei stared.
"What is it?"
"Elena Volkov."
Dmitri stopped breathing.
"My sister?"
Teresa nodded.
Dmitri laughed once in disbelief.
"I don't have a sister."
"You did."
Viktor Volkov Sr. had two children.
Dmitri and Elena.
After their mother died, Elena was sent to relatives overseas.
Dmitri had been told she died from pneumonia.
She had not.
Years later, she returned under another surname.
"Why?" Maria asked.
"To find out what her father had done," Teresa said.
Dmitri looked devastated.
"She knew who I was."
"Yes."
"And never told me."
"She was afraid you'd protect your father's memory."
Dmitri walked away.
Alexei remained focused.
"If Elena isn't behind this, who took her?"
Teresa looked at the torn paper.
"Rafael didn't write Elena."
"What?"
"He wrote Helena."
Maria frowned.
"Who is Helena?"
Teresa looked toward Sergei.
His expression collapsed.
"No."
Alexei turned.
"Uncle?"
Sergei sat down.
"Helena Markov."
"Who?"
"My mother."
Alexei stared.
"Grandmother Helena died before I was born."
"That's what you were told."
The story became darker.
Helena Markov had been Nikolai and Sergei's mother.
Brilliant with numbers.
Controlling.
Obsessed with preserving family wealth.
She disappeared after being accused of embezzlement.
Nikolai told everyone she died abroad.
In reality, she lived another twenty years.
She built a network of accountants and intermediaries who continued moving money.
"But she'd be nearly ninety," Maria said.
"She died six years ago," Sergei replied.
"Then who are we chasing?"
Teresa answered.
"Her son."
Silence.
Alexei frowned.
"Nikolai and Sergei were her sons."
Sergei shook his head.
"There was another."
A half brother.
Daniel Markov.
Younger than Sergei.
Kept outside the Petrov name.
He eventually became a financial consultant.
And seventeen years ago, he worked with Viktor Volkov.
"Is he alive?" Maria asked.
Sergei nodded.
"Under another name."
"What name?"
Before Sergei could answer, the lights went out.
Sophie gasped.
Maria grabbed her.
Emergency lights flickered red.
Dmitri drew his phone.
"No signal."
Alexei moved toward the hallway.
"Generator should have started."
Sergei whispered:
"Someone cut it."
A sound came from downstairs.
The front door.
Then footsteps.
Dmitri told everyone to remain upstairs.
Alexei ignored him.
Maria followed despite being ordered not to.
They descended.
The estate was nearly black.
Moonlight entered through the windows.
At the bottom of the staircase, they found the front door open.
No one there.
Then Sophie whispered:
"Doctor bag."
Her pink medical kit sat in the foyer.
Maria had left it upstairs.
Inside was a new object.
A key card.
Dmitri examined it.
"Petrov Logistics."
Warehouse access.
Alexei read the number.
"Warehouse Seven."
Maria remembered the old records.
Warehouse Seven appeared repeatedly.
"That's where Elena is."
They called police from a landline after the backup system returned.
Authorities insisted nobody leave.
Maria intended to obey.
Then she discovered Sophie missing.
Again.
Panic surged through her.
"Sophie!"
A tiny voice answered from beneath the main staircase.
"Mommy?"
Maria found her kneeling beside a narrow door.
"What are you doing?"
"The lady."
"What lady?"
"She went inside."
Maria looked at the door.
It was old.
Nearly invisible beneath decorative paneling.
Locked.
Sophie held up something.
A gold earring.
Elena's missing earring.
Maria called the others.
Dmitri arrived first.
He forced the door.
Behind it was a staircase descending below the basement.
The air smelled damp.
They went down.
At the bottom was another room.
Computer equipment.
Security monitors.
Photographs.
Dozens of them.
Maria.
Sophie.
Alexei.
Dmitri.
Elena.
Teresa.
Someone had been watching the estate from inside the estate.
Dmitri stared at the screens.
"This system isn't connected to ours."
Alexei found a laptop.
Still warm.
Maria looked at a wall covered with photographs.
One face appeared repeatedly.
A middle-aged man with graying hair.
She recognized him.
Dr. Adrian Marks.
The Petrov family's financial attorney.
The man who had helped Alexei investigate Rafael's trust.
Sergei entered and froze.
"Daniel."
Alexei turned.
"That's Daniel Markov?"
Sergei nodded.
The trusted attorney had been inside the family for decades under another identity.
Maria felt sick.
"He knew everything."
"Yes," Alexei said.
"He knew you were reopening the trust."
"Yes."
"He knew Elena copied the footage."
"Yes."
"And he knew Sophie was here."
Alexei's expression changed.
On one monitor, a live camera feed appeared.
Warehouse Seven.
Elena sat tied to a chair.
Behind her stood Adrian Marks.
Daniel Markov.
He looked directly into the camera.
Then smiled.
The speakers crackled.
"Maria."
She stepped closer.
Daniel continued.
"If you want Elena alive, bring Rafael's blue ledger."
Alexei shook his head.
"No."
Daniel seemed almost able to hear him.
"And bring the little doctor."
Maria went still.
Sophie squeezed her hand.
Daniel leaned toward the camera.
May you like
"Because Sophie saw something in that study she still hasn't told you."
The screen went black.
