Chapter 5 - The Man Behind the Betrayal
The door opened slowly.
Victor Blackwood stood in front of Emma.
Neither of them moved.
The voice outside came again.
"Victor... you should have left this buried."
Emma recognized the voice before she understood why.
Her body froze.
Not because she knew the man.
Because some part of her remembered him.
A memory hidden deep inside her mind.
A voice from a night she had spent twelve years trying to forget.
Victor looked at her.
"You know that voice."
Emma shook her head.
"I don't."
But her face betrayed her.
Victor noticed.
The hidden room door opened completely.
A man stood in the hallway.
Older.
Gray hair.
Perfect black suit.
A black stone ring on his finger.
Victor stared at him.
Impossible.
"Father..."
The man smiled slightly.
"Hello, Victor."
The room became silent.
Emma looked between them.
Victor’s father was supposed to be dead.
For ten years.
Victor stepped forward.
"You died."
The man walked closer.
"That was what everyone was supposed to believe."
Victor’s expression changed.
Anger replaced shock.
"You knew."
His father looked around the hidden room.
"I knew your mother was hiding something."
"She was trying to expose you."
A small smile appeared on the man's face.
"Your mother always thought she was smarter than everyone."
Emma watched Victor carefully.
This was the first time she had seen him lose control.
Not because he was afraid.
Because he had been betrayed by the person he trusted most.
"Why?"
Victor asked.
The man looked at him.
"Because this family was never built on trust."
He pointed toward the room.
"It was built on secrets."
Victor stepped out of the hidden room.
Emma followed.
The mansion felt different now.
The walls.
The portraits.
The silence.
Everything seemed like a lie.
Victor’s father walked toward the dining hall.
The servants stood frozen when they saw him.
Some looked shocked.
Others looked like they already knew.
Victor noticed.
"You knew he was alive?"
Nobody answered.
That was enough.
His eyes moved toward Henry.
The butler stood near the staircase.
Alive.
Victor stared at him.
"You knew."
Henry lowered his head.
"I did."
The words hit harder than any explanation.
Victor walked closer.
"All these years."
Henry looked broken.
"I was trying to protect you."
"By lying?"
Henry looked at him.
"By keeping you alive."
The room became quiet.
Emma looked at Henry.
The old butler had never looked afraid of Victor.
But now he looked afraid for him.
Victor turned toward his father.
"What happened the night my mother died?"
His father didn’t answer immediately.
Then he said:
"Your mother found out too much."
Emma felt a chill.
"About what?"
The man looked at her.
Not Victor.
Her.
"About you."
Emma stepped back.
Victor noticed.
"What does she have to do with this?"
His father smiled.
"Everything."
Victor grabbed the old files from the table.
"You used my mother’s investigation."
His father looked at the documents.
"She was close to finding the truth."
"What truth?"
The man looked at Emma.
"The truth about who she really was."
Emma shook her head.
"No."
Victor looked at her.
"You need to listen."
The man continued.
"Fourteen years ago, Eleanor found a child outside this mansion."
Emma froze.
The memory came back.
A gate.
Rain.
A woman kneeling beside her.
Eleanor.
"She wasn't just protecting a witness."
His father stepped closer.
"She was protecting her."
Victor looked confused.
"From who?"
The man answered calmly.
"From the people who wanted her gone."
Emma felt her breathing become faster.
"Why?"
The man looked at Victor.
"Because she saw something she wasn't supposed to see."
Victor’s eyes narrowed.
"The night my mother died."
The man nodded.
"Yes."
Emma closed her eyes.
A memory appeared.
A hallway.
A scream.
A woman falling.
A ring.
The black stone ring.
She opened her eyes.
"I saw you."
Everyone turned.
The room went silent.
Emma looked directly at Victor’s father.
"I saw you that night."
The man's expression changed.
Only for a second.
But Victor saw it.
"You were there."
The man said nothing.
Victor stepped closer.
"You killed my mother."
Henry suddenly moved.
"Sir."
Everyone looked at him.
Henry’s voice shook.
"There is something you don't know."
Victor turned.
"What?"
Henry looked at Emma.
Then at Victor.
"Your mother did not die that night."
Silence.
Emma stared.
"What?"
Henry continued.
"She survived."
Victor stopped breathing.
"No."
"I found her."
Henry's eyes filled with regret.
"She was alive."
Victor looked lost.
"Where is she?"
Nobody answered.
Then Henry slowly reached into his coat.
He pulled out an old envelope.
Victor recognized the handwriting immediately.
His mother’s.
"My God..."
He opened it.
Inside was a photograph.
A woman standing beside a hospital bed.
Alive.
Older.
But unmistakably Eleanor Blackwood.
On the back of the photograph was one sentence.
"Victor cannot know the truth until Emma remembers."
Victor looked at Emma.
Emma looked terrified.
Because she suddenly remembered one more thing.
The last words Eleanor whispered to her fourteen years ago.
A warning.
A name.
A person she was told never to trust.
Emma looked at Victor.
Her voice barely came out.
"The person who hurt your mother..."
She swallowed.
"...was not your father."
Victor stared at her.
"Then who was it?"
Emma looked toward the staircase.
Because someone had been standing there silently the entire time.
Someone who had heard everything.
Someone who had been inside Blackwood Manor since the beginning.
And then the lights went out again...
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A voice whispered from the darkness.
"Emma..."
