Chapter 6 - The Secret Damian Couldn't Bury
Damian reached the corridor first.
"Rebecca!"
No answer.
Nathaniel followed.
I tried to run.
My ankle protested immediately.
Damian turned.
"Stay—"
"Don't."
He stopped.
Right.
We were done with that word.
He came back and offered his arm instead.
"Together."
Better.
We followed muddy footprints through the west corridor.
Cole's.
Another set beside them.
My mother's.
Nathaniel looked sick.
"This is my fault."
"Later," I said.
Apparently I'd inherited my mother's ability to postpone emotional collapse.
We reached the ballroom.
Smoke drifted beneath the damaged ceiling.
Firefighters had cleared most civilians.
A phone lay on the floor.
My mother's.
The screen was cracked.
One message displayed.
BRING ELENA TO THE GREENHOUSE.
Nathaniel read it.
"No."
I said, "We're going."
"Absolutely not."
I looked at him.
"You lost voting privileges around 2012."
Damian almost smiled despite everything.
Nathaniel did not.
"Vale wants you."
"Then he already knows I'm here."
"Elena."
"Mom is there."
That ended it.
Blackwood's greenhouse stood fifty yards beyond the west garden.
Rain poured against the glass.
Damian insisted we approach from the service side.
Nathaniel knew an older maintenance entrance.
We entered.
Plants cast strange shadows beneath emergency lights.
Then my mother's voice.
"Elena!"
I turned.
She sat near the center aisle.
Her hands weren't bound.
Cole stood beside her.
That confused me.
Then Cole stepped away.
"She's okay."
Damian moved forward.
"Explain."
Cole raised both hands.
"I wasn't working for Vale."
"The ledger says compromised."
"Because your father thought I was."
"Convenient."
Cole looked at Nathaniel.
"Tell him."
Nathaniel hesitated.
Then nodded.
"Cole infiltrated Vale's operation for me."
Damian's anger became colder.
"You used my head of security without telling me?"
"I couldn't trust you."
"You could trust him?"
"I trusted what he was willing to lose."
Cole said, "Vale thinks I brought Rebecca here."
"Where is he?"
"Close."
My mother stood.
Then the greenhouse lights went out.
Glass shattered.
Everyone dropped.
Damian covered me.
Nathaniel covered my mother.
A voice came through hidden speakers.
"Twenty-eight years."
Sebastian Vale.
"You've all made this unnecessarily difficult."
Damian looked upward, trying to locate the sound.
Vale continued.
"Elena, your father has told you a beautiful story."
I shouted, "Come tell me yourself."
A laugh.
"Definitely Nathaniel's daughter."
My father whispered, "Don't engage."
I ignored him.
"What do you want?"
"The archive key."
Damian said, "You don't need Elena for that."
"No. But Nathaniel does."
I frowned.
Vale continued.
"Ask your father what happens if you open the archive."
I looked at Nathaniel.
He didn't answer.
"Ask him."
"What happens?"
Nathaniel stared at the floor.
"Your name becomes public."
"What?"
"The evidence includes ownership records."
"Ownership of what?"
Damian understood.
"Blackwood."
My stomach dropped.
Nathaniel nodded.
"Part of the estate was placed in trust for you when you were born."
I laughed.
"I rent a one-bedroom apartment above a laundromat."
My mother almost smiled through her fear.
"It's complicated."
"Apparently."
Damian asked, "Why?"
Nathaniel answered.
"Your father transferred assets to protect them from Vale."
He looked at Damian.
"Elena became the beneficiary."
Damian stared at me.
I stared back.
There it was.
The reason people were hunting the catering worker nobody noticed.
Not because I was secretly special.
Not because destiny had selected me.
Because adults made decisions around a baby twenty-eight years earlier and never bothered to tell her.
Vale's voice returned.
"Bring me the ledger, Elena."
"No."
"Then Blackwood burns."
"It already is."
"Not all of it."
A red light appeared beyond the greenhouse glass.
Another wing of the estate.
Damian's face changed.
"The archive."
Nathaniel nodded.
Vale had found it.
We ran back through the garden.
By the time we reached Blackwood, flames were spreading along the north wing.
Fire crews were repositioning.
Damian grabbed a firefighter.
"Is anyone inside?"
"Unknown."
"Archive room?"
The firefighter shook his head.
"Don't know it."
Nathaniel pointed toward the upper floor.
"Behind the north gallery."
Damian looked at me.
"No."
This time I agreed.
"I know."
He seemed surprised.
"I'm staying here."
"Good."
He turned.
Then I caught his sleeve.
"Damian."
He looked back.
"Come back."
Something passed across his face.
Soft.
Unexpected.
"I will."
He entered the house with Nathaniel and firefighters.
I remained under the stone archway with my mother.
Five minutes.
Ten.
Smoke darkened.
Then Nathaniel emerged.
Alone.
"Where's Damian?"
He coughed.
"The ceiling came down."
My heart stopped.
"Where is he?"
"He pushed me through the door."
I started toward the house.
My mother caught me.
"No."
"Let go."
"Elena."
"Let go!"
Then a firefighter ran toward us.
"Someone's trapped in the north corridor."
I didn't think.
I ran.
My ankle screamed.
My mother shouted behind me.
I reached the entrance.
Heat hit my face.
A firefighter blocked me.
"You can't go in."
"Damian!"
Then I saw him through the smoke.
Alive.
Limping.
Coming toward me.
Relief hit so hard my knees weakened.
He reached me.
"You stayed outside for almost eleven minutes."
"Personal record."
Then his expression changed.
He looked behind me.
"Where's your father?"
"Right there."
I turned.
Nathaniel wasn't there.
My mother wasn't either.
Only her coat lay on the wet ground.
Her phone was on top.
May you like
A new message glowed across the screen.
TELL ELENA TO COME ALONE.
