Chapter 6 - The Bride Behind the Door
Adrian pulled Clara behind him.
"Don't move."
The farmhouse door continued opening.
Madeline Cross stood on the porch.
Behind her was a man.
Tall.
Gray-haired.
A scar ran from his temple to his jaw.
Clara stared at him.
It wasn't her father.
But she had seen that face before.
Four floors above the ground.
"The hospital window," she whispered.
The man's eyes found hers.
"Hello, Clara."
Marco raised his weapon.
"Hands where I can see them."
The man slowly lifted both hands.
Madeline didn't move.
Adrian's voice turned cold.
"Gabriel Voss."
Gabriel smiled.
"So your mother told you."
Isabella stepped from the kitchen.
The moment Gabriel saw her, his smile disappeared.
"Isabella."
"Gabriel."
Clara looked between them.
"You know each other."
Isabella's expression hardened.
"Unfortunately."
Gabriel glanced at Marco's weapon.
"If I came here to kill anyone, I wouldn't have knocked."
"You didn't," Clara said. "The locks opened themselves."
Gabriel looked amused.
"Fair point."
Adrian stepped closer.
"Why were you outside Clara's hospital window?"
"To make sure Thomas didn't say too much."
Clara's blood went cold.
"That's supposed to make us trust you?"
"No."
"Good."
Madeline finally spoke.
"Can we come inside?"
Adrian looked at her.
"You disappeared eleven months ago."
"I know."
"You appeared outside my estate three nights ago."
"Yes."
"You were inside my house today."
Madeline hesitated.
"Yes."
Clara remembered the blood.
"You're injured."
Madeline looked at her bandaged hand.
"Someone found me before I could leave."
"Who?"
Madeline glanced at Isabella.
"That's what I'm here to explain."
Adrian didn't move.
Clara touched his arm.
"Let them in."
"No."
"Adrian."
"Absolutely not."
Gabriel smiled faintly.
"She's going to be difficult for you."
Adrian's eyes snapped toward him.
"Say another word about her."
Gabriel's smile disappeared.
Clara almost rolled her eyes.
"Men."
She stepped around Adrian.
He caught her wrist.
"Clara."
"We need answers."
"They could be lying."
"So could everyone else."
That silenced the room.
Even Isabella looked uncomfortable.
Clara was tired.
Tired of dead people returning.
Tired of mysterious messages.
Tired of photographs.
Tired of being protected from information supposedly for her own good.
She looked at Madeline.
"Did you put the photograph in my suitcase?"
"No."
"The phone?"
"No."
"Did you write the message in the flour?"
Madeline nodded.
"Yes."
Clara looked at Adrian.
"One answer."
He didn't appreciate the sarcasm.
She continued.
"Did you leave the shoe?"
"Yes."
"Why?"
"I needed Adrian's security team to realize someone had entered the house."
"You could have left a note."
"I didn't know which guards I could trust."
Adrian's expression sharpened.
"Which guards?"
"That's the problem."
Madeline looked directly at him.
"I still don't."
Silence.
Marco lowered his weapon slightly.
"Inside."
Adrian looked at him.
Marco shrugged.
"We can't interrogate them on the porch."
They entered.
Gabriel was searched.
Two knives.
A pistol.
A lock-pick set.
Three phones.
Clara stared.
"Do you carry anything normal?"
Gabriel considered.
"Gum."
Marco found the gum.
Clara nodded.
"Good."
They gathered around the kitchen table.
Madeline placed the photograph beside Daniel's recipe book.
It showed her standing with Clara's father.
Daniel looked older than Clara remembered.
The photograph had been taken somewhere industrial.
Warehouse doors behind them.
A date was printed at the bottom.
Seven months ago.
Clara's knees weakened.
Seven months.
Not eight years.
Her father had been alive seven months ago.
She touched the photograph.
"Where was this taken?"
Madeline answered quietly.
"New Mexico."
"Where is he now?"
"I don't know."
Clara closed her eyes.
"Everyone keeps saying that."
"I wish I had another answer."
"When did you meet him?"
"Ten months ago."
"After you disappeared."
"Yes."
"How?"
Madeline looked at Adrian.
"Because I discovered bride number one wasn't dead."
Adrian went still.
"Sophia."
Madeline nodded.
"She contacted me."
Isabella sat down.
"You saw Sophia?"
"Not directly."
"Then how?"
"Encrypted messages."
Adrian leaned forward.
"What did she say?"
"That the women being selected as your potential brides weren't random."
Clara thought of the handwritten number.
Three.
Then four.
"Why us?"
Madeline looked at her.
"Each woman had a connection to Blackridge."
Adrian frowned.
"Rachel?"
"Her grandfather was a judge. Blackridge paid him for seventeen years."
"Sophia?"
"Her father's company moved money."
"Madeline?"
"My accounting firm audited one of Blackridge's shell companies."
Then Clara asked the question she feared.
"And me?"
Madeline pointed toward the recipe book.
"Daniel Bennett."
Clara swallowed.
"Who was choosing us?"
Madeline looked at Gabriel.
Gabriel answered.
"Someone who wanted Adrian to marry a woman connected to the missing records."
"Why?"
"Because marriage creates legal access."
Adrian understood first.
"Spousal property."
Gabriel nodded.
"If the Blackridge evidence belonged to one of the brides, marrying her to Adrian could bring it under the Vale family umbrella."
Clara frowned.
"But Adrian didn't know about it."
"That didn't matter."
"Why?"
"Because someone planned to remove Adrian afterward."
The room became very still.
Clara looked at Adrian.
"Remove?"
Gabriel didn't soften it.
"Kill him."
Adrian barely reacted.
Clara did.
"No."
Her hand found his automatically.
Adrian looked down.
She held tighter.
Gabriel continued.
"Marry Adrian to the correct woman. Gain access to the evidence. Kill Adrian. Control the estate through the surviving spouse."
Clara stared.
"Control through me?"
"Not directly."
"Then who?"
Gabriel looked toward Isabella.
"The person manipulating you."
Clara's stomach twisted.
"Thomas?"
"No."
"Elena?"
Adrian's expression hardened.
"Careful."
Gabriel ignored him.
"Someone close enough to influence the widow after Adrian's death."
Madeline leaned forward.
"That's why I ran."
She looked at Adrian.
"I discovered the plan two days before I was supposed to arrive."
"Why didn't you tell me?"
"I tried."
"No, you disappeared."
"Because the message I sent you was intercepted."
"By whom?"
"I don't know."
Adrian laughed bitterly.
"Convenient."
Madeline pulled a flash drive from her pocket.
"I kept everything."
Marco took it.
"Don't plug that into anything connected to a network."
"I know."
Gabriel looked impressed.
Marco didn't care.
Clara studied Madeline.
"Why did you hold up the sign outside the estate telling them not to let me marry Adrian?"
"Because I thought you were walking into the same trap."
"Yet you came here."
"Because Daniel told me you were different."
Clara's throat tightened.
"What did my father say about me?"
Madeline's expression softened.
"He said you were stubborn."
Adrian murmured, "Accurate."
Clara elbowed him.
He barely moved.
Madeline continued.
"He said you trusted people based on what they did, not what others said about them."
Clara looked at Adrian.
Her father had known her.
Even after disappearing.
"Did he watch me?"
"From a distance."
"For eight years?"
"I think so."
Anger mixed with relief.
Her father was alive.
Her father had abandoned her.
Her father had protected her.
Her father had watched her struggle to save his bakery while apparently hiding across the country.
She didn't know which emotion she was allowed to feel.
So she felt all of them.
"Why didn't he come home?"
Gabriel answered.
"Because Blackridge believed he was dead."
"Apparently not anymore."
"No."
"When did they discover he survived?"
"Six months ago."
Clara froze.
Six months.
Elena spoke first.
"That's when Clara's debt was purchased."
Gabriel nodded.
There it was.
The missing piece.
"They couldn't find Daniel," Gabriel said. "So they went after Clara."
"They engineered the marriage," Adrian said.
"Yes."
Clara looked at him.
"Then why did you agree?"
Adrian frowned.
"My advisors told me marriage would stabilize several business alliances."
"Who suggested me?"
He thought.
"Thomas delivered the file."
"Before Thomas."
Adrian's expression changed.
"Elena."
Everyone looked toward the doorway.
Elena wasn't there.
Clara's pulse jumped.
"Where is she?"
Marco stood immediately.
"She was checking the perimeter."
Adrian pulled out his phone.
Called.
No answer.
Again.
Nothing.
Isabella whispered, "Adrian."
He ignored her.
"Marco, find her."
Marco headed toward the door.
Gabriel stopped him.
"Wait."
Marco turned.
Gabriel pointed at the security monitor.
One exterior camera had gone black.
Then another.
Then another.
Someone was disabling them.
Adrian took Clara's hand.
"Basement."
She stared.
"What?"
"Safe room."
"I'm not hiding."
"This isn't a discussion."
"Adrian—"
He bent and lifted her.
Clara gasped.
"Put me down!"
"No."
"This is kidnapping."
"We're engaged."
"That doesn't make kidnapping legal!"
Despite everything, Madeline laughed.
Adrian carried Clara toward the basement.
She stopped fighting mostly because it was pointless.
"You're impossible."
"So I've been told."
"By three brides?"
His mouth twitched.
"Mostly you."
The basement safe room had reinforced walls, independent power and a security monitor.
Adrian finally set Clara down.
"Thank you."
"You're welcome."
"I wasn't being sincere."
"I know."
Isabella, Madeline, Gabriel and Marco entered behind them.
Marco locked the steel door.
On the monitor, movement appeared near the farmhouse.
Three vehicles.
Black SUVs.
Men stepped out.
Armed.
"How did they find us?" Isabella whispered.
Gabriel looked at the recipe book.
"The tracker."
"Marco removed it."
"They may have had a second one."
Clara opened the book.
They searched every page.
Nothing.
Then Adrian noticed the spine.
He ran a finger along the leather.
A tiny red light blinked.
Marco swore.
"Second transmitter."
Gabriel smiled without humor.
"Daniel always liked redundancy."
Clara looked at him.
"You're saying my father planted the trackers?"
"No."
"Then who?"
"Someone who had access to the box after Daniel hid it."
Gunfire erupted upstairs.
Clara jumped.
Marco watched the monitors.
"Our exterior team is engaging."
Adrian reached for his weapon.
Clara grabbed his arm.
"No."
He looked at her.
"You stay."
"Funny how that sounds when I say it."
"Clara."
"If you go upstairs, I go upstairs."
"No."
"Then don't go."
Another burst of gunfire.
The basement lights flickered.
Madeline suddenly pointed at the monitor.
"Wait."
One camera still worked.
A figure moved between the attackers.
Not attacking the house.
Attacking them.
One man fell.
Then another.
The mysterious figure moved quickly toward the farmhouse.
Gray jacket.
Slight limp.
Clara stepped closer to the monitor.
Her heart stopped.
"Dad."
The man turned toward the camera.
Daniel Bennett.
Older.
Bearded.
Alive.
He looked directly into the lens.
Then pointed toward the basement.
Clara whispered, "He knows we're here."
Daniel disappeared from view.
Gunfire stopped.
Seconds passed.
Then three knocks sounded against the safe-room door.
Clara froze.
Three knocks.
The rhythm her father had used on her bedroom door when she was a child.
Knock.
Knock-knock.
"Clara?"
Her knees almost gave out.
His voice.
Older.
Rougher.
But his.
"Dad?"
Adrian caught her before she could move.
"Wait."
Clara looked at him.
"That's my father."
"We verify first."
"How?"
Adrian approached the intercom.
"Daniel Bennett?"
Silence.
Then the voice answered.
"Adrian Vale."
Adrian stiffened.
Daniel continued.
"I've waited eight years to meet you."
Clara covered her mouth.
Adrian unlocked the first security mechanism.
Marco stopped him.
"Sir."
"If it's Daniel, we need him."
"If it isn't?"
Adrian looked at Clara.
Then unlocked the second mechanism.
The final lock remained.
Clara stepped forward.
"Let me."
Adrian hesitated.
Then moved aside.
Clara placed her hand on the mechanism.
"Dad?"
"Pumpkin."
Her eyes filled instantly.
Nobody had called her that since the fire.
Only one person ever had.
She unlocked the door.
It opened.
Daniel Bennett stood there.
Alive.
Clara couldn't move.
Neither could he.
Then Daniel opened his arms.
"Clara."
She ran into them.
Her father held her.
Eight years disappeared.
She sobbed against his chest.
He kissed her hair.
"I'm sorry."
She hit him.
Once.
Hard.
Then hugged him again.
"You were alive."
"I know."
"You left me."
"I know."
"I hate you."
"I know."
She cried harder.
"I missed you."
Daniel's voice broke.
"I missed you every day."
Behind Clara, Adrian lowered his weapon.
Daniel finally looked at him.
The warmth vanished from his face.
"You."
Adrian stepped forward.
"Me."
Daniel released Clara.
For several seconds the two men stared at each other.
Then Daniel said something Clara never expected.
"You look exactly like him."
Adrian frowned.
"Who?"
Daniel's eyes moved toward Isabella.
"Your real father."
The room went silent.
Adrian stared at his mother.
Isabella went pale.
"Daniel."
Adrian turned slowly.
"My real father?"
Isabella shook her head.
"Not here."
"No."
Adrian's voice became terrifyingly calm.
"We're doing this now."
Clara looked between them.
Daniel reached into his jacket.
He removed an old photograph.
Placed it on the table.
Two young men stood beside Isabella.
One was Adrian's father—the man whose portrait hung inside the Vale estate.
The other was someone Clara recognized.
Gabriel Voss.
Adrian stared at the photograph.
Then at Gabriel.
"No."
Gabriel said nothing.
Adrian's face changed.
"Tell me he's not my father."
Isabella's eyes filled with tears.
Before she could answer, Madeline's phone rang.
She looked at the screen.
All color disappeared from her face.
"What?" Clara asked.
Madeline turned the phone around.
A live video showed the old chapel on the Vale estate.
Someone was standing before the altar.
A woman.
Clara recognized her from the photograph.
Sophia Bell.
Alive.
Sophia looked directly into the camera.
Then someone stepped into frame behind her.
Sophia's face filled with terror.
She whispered one name.
"Elena."
May you like
The chapel doors slammed shut.
And a gunshot rang out.
