Chapter 6 - The Person Elena Feared
Victor stared at Samuel.
“You’re lying.”
Samuel shook his head.
“I’ve lied for twenty years. Not about this.”
Vivian stepped between them.
“Who ordered Lorenzo’s death?”
Samuel looked at Rebecca.
Rebecca looked away.
Edmund noticed.
“Rebecca.”
She said nothing.
“Look at me.”
She did.
“Was it Adrian?”
“No.”
The answer changed the room.
Vivian felt her certainty collapse.
“Then who?”
Rebecca opened her mouth.
A phone rang.
Victor’s.
He looked at the screen.
Unknown.
Samuel said, “Don’t answer.”
Victor answered.
A distorted voice spoke through the speaker.
“You were always terrible at following instructions.”
Victor went pale.
“Adrian?”
The voice laughed.
Then disconnected.
Samuel exhaled.
“That wasn’t Adrian.”
“How do you know?” Edmund asked.
“Because Adrian is afraid too.”
Nobody believed him.
Samuel reached slowly into his jacket.
Marcus moved.
Samuel stopped.
“Photograph.”
“Take it out slowly.”
He did.
It showed Adrian Costa tied to a chair.
Alive.
A newspaper rested beside him.
Tonight’s date.
Vivian stared.
“So Adrian isn’t controlling this.”
“No.”
“Then why was his name added to the trust?”
“To make you blame him.”
Edmund’s jaw tightened.
“Who benefits?”
Samuel looked at Victor.
“Ask him who inherited Elena’s voting shares before Vivian turned twenty-five.”
Victor went silent.
Vivian turned.
“Dad?”
He sat down.
“Your godfather.”
Vivian felt the world tilt.
“Thomas?”
Thomas Bell.
Her mother’s older brother.
The man who had taught Vivian to drive.
The man who had attended every birthday after Elena died.
The man who had hugged her that morning before the wedding.
Uncle Thomas.
“He managed the shares temporarily,” Victor said.
“How temporarily?”
“Eight years.”
Samuel nodded.
“Long enough to move money, alter records, and destroy evidence.”
Vivian shook her head.
“No.”
Samuel looked sympathetic.
“That’s why Elena was afraid.”
“My uncle loved her.”
“Maybe once.”
“What happened?”
“Money.”
The simplest answer.
The ugliest.
Thomas had been involved in the original financial theft.
Lorenzo discovered irregularities.
Elena discovered more.
Samuel had worked as an internal investigator.
When Thomas realized they were close, he manipulated Adrian.
He fed Adrian evidence suggesting Victor was stealing.
He fed Victor evidence suggesting Lorenzo was responsible.
Then he arranged Lorenzo’s fatal crash.
Samuel survived because Lorenzo changed their travel plan at the last moment.
“Why disappear?” Edmund demanded.
“Because I had a daughter.”
Samuel’s voice broke slightly.
“They threatened her.”
Vivian looked at him differently.
“You left everyone believing you were dead.”
“Yes.”
“For twenty years?”
“Yes.”
“Why come back tonight?”
Samuel looked at her wedding dress.
“Because your marriage activated the trust.”
“Did you use the red light?”
“Yes.”
Edmund stepped forward.
Vivian caught his arm.
“Why?” she asked Samuel.
“To get you away from the center of the ballroom without causing panic.”
“You terrified me.”
“I know.”
“You could have walked up and spoken to us.”
“No. Thomas had people inside security.”
Marcus frowned.
“Who?”
“I don’t know.”
“So you staged the threat.”
“Yes.”
“And switched the key.”
“Yes.”
Vivian wanted to be furious.
She was.
But the logic fit.
“What about the message saying the bride was next?”
“Not me.”
Samuel’s expression became urgent.
“That was Thomas.”
Edmund immediately looked at Marcus.
“Lock down every exit.”
Marcus made the call.
Vivian looked at Victor.
“Where is Uncle Thomas?”
Victor’s face showed horror.
“He left after dinner.”
“When?”
“Before the dance.”
Samuel shook his head.
“No. He didn’t.”
“What?”
“He changed clothes.”
Marcus received a message.
Security image.
A maintenance worker entering the private corridors.
His face was partly hidden.
But Vivian recognized the walk.
Thomas.
Her godfather.
Her uncle.
Her mother’s brother.
The man who had kissed her forehead that morning.
Edmund looked at Samuel.
“Where would he go?”
“To the ledger.”
“Where is it?”
Samuel looked at Vivian.
“Elena hid it.”
“We know.”
“No. I mean she hid it where only Vivian could find it.”
Vivian frowned.
“I was seventeen when she died.”
“She left clues.”
Vivian thought about her mother.
The journals.
The chest.
The key.
Then she remembered something.
A bedtime game.
When Vivian was little, Elena would hide notes around their house.
Every note contained numbers.
4-1-7.
Vivian had assumed it was a silly code.
“What does 417 mean?” she whispered.
Samuel smiled sadly.
“Your birthday.”
April seventeenth.
4/17.
Vivian’s breath caught.
“The key was mine.”
“Yes.”
“Where does it lead?”
Samuel looked at the church.
“Where did your mother take you every birthday?”
Vivian knew immediately.
“The bell tower.”
They ran.
The staircase spiraled upward.
Edmund remained behind Vivian.
Marcus and Samuel followed.
At the top, they found an old wooden box bolted beneath the bell mechanism.
Vivian inserted the key.
It opened.
Inside was a ledger.
The original.
Twenty years of secrets in one book.
Vivian touched it.
Edmund stopped her.
“Photograph everything first.”
She looked at him.
“Why?”
“In case someone takes it.”
Smart.
Marcus documented every page.
Names.
Payments.
Shell companies.
Thomas Bell.
Again.
Again.
Again.
Then another name appeared.
Victor Moretti.
Vivian stared.
“Dad?”
Samuel looked over her shoulder.
His expression changed.
“No.”
“What?”
“That isn’t your father’s signature.”
“How do you know?”
“I investigated him for years.”
Vivian examined it.
Close.
But not right.
Forgery.
Thomas had framed Victor too.
A noise came from the stairs.
Everyone turned.
Victor appeared.
Breathing heavily.
“I had to know.”
Vivian showed him the ledger.
He saw his name.
Then the false signature.
His face collapsed.
“Elena knew.”
“Yes.”
Victor cried.
Quietly.
Not dramatically.
Twenty years of shame seemed to leave him at once.
“I blamed Lorenzo.”
Edmund looked at him.
“And my family blamed you.”
Samuel said, “That was the point.”
A second sound came from below.
Footsteps.
Marcus moved toward the stairs.
His phone buzzed.
He looked at it.
Then stopped.
“What?”
Marcus turned slowly.
“Security found Thomas.”
Vivian’s heart jumped.
“Where?”
Marcus looked toward the locked door behind the bell mechanism.
“According to the building tracker…”
A heavy knock sounded from the other side.
May you like
Marcus finished:
“He’s already up here.”
