Chapter 10 - The Night the Lights Went Out
Emergency power returned in eight seconds.
Adrien reached Camille in two.
Tomas locked down the building.
Margot was not inside.
The voice had come through a hacked conference system.
A distraction.
Then Camille’s phone rang.
Ardan House security.
The alarm had triggered.
Adrien looked at her.
“She’s going there.”
Camille grabbed her coat.
“So am I.”
“No.”
She looked at him.
He reconsidered the sentence.
“Fine. We’re going.”
“Growth.”
“Don’t enjoy it.”
They arrived to find no broken doors.
No shattered windows.
Nothing missing.
But Camille’s new brass plaque had been placed in the center of the ballroom floor.
Under it was a photograph of Marianne.
On the back:
SHE CHOSE WRONG TOO.
Camille stared.
“This isn’t about money anymore.”
Adrien agreed.
Margot had lost control of the accounts.
The evidence existed in multiple secure locations.
Destroying Ardan House would accomplish nothing.
“This is personal.”
Camille looked toward the staircase.
“Then she’ll come to me.”
“She already has.”
A sound came from upstairs.
Adrien moved first.
They found Margot in Marianne’s old office.
She held no weapon.
Only a folder.
“You took your time.”
Adrien blocked the doorway.
Margot looked at Camille.
“I wanted you to understand your mother.”
“I understand enough.”
“No. You understand the version dead people left behind.”
She opened the folder.
Letters.
Marianne’s.
Margot claimed Marianne had once considered leaving with Viktor.
Then changed her mind.
“She knew his world would consume her.”
Camille’s voice stayed calm.
“She chose.”
“She was afraid.”
“Those aren’t mutually exclusive.”
Margot’s face hardened.
“You sound like her.”
“Thank you.”
Police sirens approached.
Margot seemed almost relieved.
“I didn’t escape to stay free.”
Adrien frowned.
“Then why?”
“To give Camille this.”
She slid one final letter across the desk.
Marianne had addressed it to her daughter.
Camille opened it.
My darling Camille,
If you ever love a powerful man, never measure his love by what he gives you.
Measure it by what he allows you to remain.
Camille stopped.
The next lines blurred.
A man who loves you should not need you smaller so he can feel larger.
He should not call your independence abandonment.
He should not make your dreams compete with his.
If he can watch you walk through a door that belongs to you and still be happy you opened it, perhaps that is love worth risking.
Camille looked at Adrien.
He was not reading over her shoulder.
He had turned away.
Giving the letter privacy.
Something inside her broke open.
Police arrived.
Margot surrendered.
This time there would be no escape.
Hours later, Camille and Adrien stood outside Ardan House.
Dawn approached.
“You knew I was reading about you,” she said.
“No.”
“Liar.”
“Possibly.”
She smiled.
“Why didn’t you look?”
“Because it was from your mother.”
A long silence.
“Adrien.”
He turned.
Camille almost told him.
Almost.
Then Tomas came running from the house.
“Sir.”
Adrien immediately read his face.
“What?”
“We found something behind the office wall.”
“What?”
“A safe.”
Camille frowned.
“We opened every compartment.”
“Not this one.”
They followed him upstairs.
Behind removed paneling was a small steel safe.
Samuel’s key opened it.
Inside was one envelope.
Not eighteen years old.
Recent.
The handwriting belonged to Viktor Kovac.
But Viktor had been dead eleven years.
Adrien opened it.
Inside was a photograph taken only six months ago.
The photograph showed Camille leaving the Kovac building.
Someone had been watching her.
On the back were five words:
SHE MUST NEVER KNOW YET.
May you like
And beneath them was the signature of a man who was supposed to be dead.
Viktor Kovac.
