CHAPTER 6 — THE HOUSE ACROSS THE CANYON
Vale House stood across the canyon from Arthur’s mansion.
From the Sterling pool, it appeared to be an abandoned Spanish villa hidden behind eucalyptus trees.
Arthur had looked at it for years.
He had watched storms move across its red-tiled roof.
He had seen occasional lights through the trees and assumed a caretaker lived there.
Emily had been imprisoned within walking distance of her daughter.
Arthur stared at the coordinates.
“I could have seen her window.”
Daniel drove faster.
“You could not have known.”
“She was right there.”
“Arthur.”
“She heard Lily playing.”
“We don’t know that.”
“She saw our house.”
Daniel looked at him.
“Do not let Charles turn this into guilt. That is how he controls people.”
Arthur said nothing.
They called Detective Cole from the road.
Cole listened, then swore quietly.
“I’m assembling a team.”
“No uniforms,” Daniel warned. “Charles has a leak.”
“I’m already handling it.”
“What does that mean?”
Cole paused.
“One of my officers accessed Sarah’s transfer route.”
Arthur’s stomach tightened.
“Where is she?”
“Safe. We changed vehicles.”
“Who accessed it?”
“A detective named Paul Renner.”
Daniel knew the name.
“Organized crime unit.”
Cole continued.
“Renner disappeared twenty minutes ago.”
Charles was closing every door behind him.
Arthur looked at the hills ahead.
“What about Lily?”
“She’s with Maria in the panic room.”
“Do not move her.”
“I won’t.”
Arthur hesitated.
“Cole.”
“Yes?”
“If Emily is inside that house—”
“We bring her out alive.”
Arthur ended the call.
They reached the access road at 1:17 p.m.
Vale House sat behind a stone wall and a rusted gate.
No vehicles were visible.
No guards.
Too quiet.
Daniel stopped the SUV.
“This is wrong.”
Arthur opened the door.
“Everything has been wrong for two years.”
They approached on foot.
The gate was unlocked.
The garden had been neglected intentionally. Dead leaves covered hidden security wires. Cameras were built into stone statues.
Daniel disabled one.
They reached the front door.
It opened before Arthur touched it.
Martin Hale stood inside.
James’s trusted attorney.
He held a gun.
“Mr. Sterling.”
Arthur did not appear surprised.
“Where is she?”
Hale looked exhausted.
“You should not have come.”
“You signed the transfer order.”
“I was told she was dangerous.”
“You drafted papers to steal my daughter.”
“I drafted what Charles requested.”
Daniel aimed his weapon.
“Step away from the door.”
Hale laughed bitterly.
“You think Charles is the worst person involved?”
Arthur stared at him.
“Move.”
Hale lowered the gun slightly.
“I can take you to Emily.”
“Then do it.”
“But when you see her, you may wish you hadn’t.”
Arthur stepped closer.
“Nothing you say will stop me.”
Hale looked at him for a long moment.
Then placed the gun on the floor.
Daniel kicked it away.
They entered.
Vale House was larger inside than it appeared.
The first floor looked ordinary.
Antique furniture.
Covered paintings.
Dust.
But beneath the staircase was a steel elevator requiring a coded key.
Hale entered six digits.
The doors opened.
They descended.
The underground level was a private medical facility.
Bright white walls.
Locked rooms.
Surveillance monitors.
Arthur saw footage from his own mansion.
The pool.
Lily’s bedroom.
Emily’s studio.
Victoria had watched them for years.
Arthur moved toward the screens.
“How?”
Hale answered, “Victoria installed relays through your smart-home system.”
Daniel examined the equipment.
“This network is still active.”
Arthur pointed to a hallway.
“Emily.”
Hale led them past three empty rooms.
At the final door, he stopped.
“She has been receiving neurological medication for two years.”
“What kind?”
“Memory suppressants. Sedatives. Hallucinogenic compounds.”
Arthur stared at him.
“Why?”
“To convince her that her memories were false.”
“Whose order?”
Hale looked away.
“Charles.”
Daniel asked, “And Victoria?”
“She supervised.”
Arthur’s voice became colder.
“Open the door.”
Hale entered another code.
The lock released.
The room beyond looked almost like a bedroom.
Soft walls.
No sharp objects.
A narrow bed.
A table.
A window showing a digital image of a garden that did not exist.
Emily sat in a chair facing the false window.
Her hair reached her shoulders.
Gray strands ran through the brown.
She was painfully thin.
Arthur stopped breathing.
“Emily.”
She did not move.
He stepped inside.
“Emily.”
Her head turned slowly.
Her eyes found him.
No recognition.
Only fear.
She stood and backed toward the wall.
“Stay away.”
Arthur froze.
“It’s me.”
“No.”
“It’s Arthur.”
She shook her head.
“Arthur sent me here.”
His face collapsed.
“No.”
“He said I was sick.”
“No.”
“He said Lily was afraid of me.”
Arthur moved one step closer.
Emily grabbed a lamp from the table.
“Don’t come near me.”
He stopped immediately.
“Lily loves you.”
Emily’s hand trembled.
“Lily is dead.”
Arthur felt as if someone had struck him.
“No.”
“That’s what they told me.”
“She is alive.”
Emily stared at him.
“No.”
“She is four years old. She carries the white bear you gave her. She calls it Teddy because she couldn’t say Theodore.”
The lamp lowered slightly.
Arthur continued.
“She hates peas.”
Emily’s eyes changed.
“She used to like peas.”
“She decided she hated them three months after you disappeared.”
“Disappeared?”
“You didn’t die.”
Her breathing became faster.
Arthur slowly removed his phone.
He opened a photograph of Lily taken that morning.
Emily stared.
Her knees weakened.
Arthur caught her before she fell.
She fought him.
“No!”
“It’s okay.”
“Let me go!”
He released her instantly.
She pressed herself against the wall.
Tears streamed down her face.
“They said she drowned.”
Arthur looked at Hale.
Hale lowered his eyes.
Arthur turned back to Emily.
“Victoria tried to drown her last night.”
Emily’s face changed at the name.
“Victoria.”
“Yes.”
“She comes here.”
“I know.”
“She said you married her.”
“We never married.”
“She showed me photographs.”
“The wedding never happened.”
“She said Lily called her Mommy.”
Arthur’s voice broke.
“Lily is terrified of her.”
Emily covered her mouth.
Memories moved behind her eyes like shadows.
Daniel entered slowly.
Emily saw him.
Her face went blank.
“Dad?”
Daniel stopped.
For the first time since Arthur had met him, the older man looked completely helpless.
“Hello, Em.”
Emily stared at him.
“You left.”
Daniel’s eyes filled.
“I did.”
“You promised you would come back.”
“I know.”
“You never did.”
“I was a coward.”
Arthur looked between them.
This reunion carried another history he did not understand.
Emily began crying.
Daniel did not approach.
“I have spent every day regretting it.”
A siren sounded in the hallway.
Hale’s face changed.
“They know you’re here.”
Daniel turned.
“Who?”
“Charles’s security team.”
Arthur moved toward Emily.
“We have to leave.”
She backed away.
“No.”
“They’ll move you again.”
“You are lying.”
Arthur showed her Lily’s photograph once more.
“Come with me, and I will take you to her.”
Emily stared at the image.
Then slowly reached for the phone.
Her fingers touched Lily’s face.
“Her hair is longer.”
Arthur swallowed.
“Yes.”
“She still holds Teddy.”
“Every day.”
Emily looked at him.
“Does she remember me?”
Arthur’s eyes filled.
“She talks to your picture every night.”
The alarm grew louder.
Hale rushed toward the elevator controls.
“They are sealing the upper floor.”
Daniel checked the hallway.
“How many entrances?”
“One elevator. One emergency tunnel.”
“Where?”
“Medical storage.”
They moved quickly.
Emily could barely walk.
Arthur supported her, but every time he touched her she flinched.
He tried not to let it destroy him.
At the storage room, Hale opened a steel panel.
A narrow tunnel stretched toward the canyon.
Daniel entered first.
Arthur guided Emily behind him.
Hale followed.
They had moved less than fifty feet when gunfire erupted behind them.
Bullets struck the metal walls.
Daniel returned fire.
“Move!”
Arthur pulled Emily forward.
The tunnel sloped upward.
Light appeared ahead.
They emerged beneath a stone gazebo outside the property wall.
Detective Cole waited with two agents.
“Go!”
They rushed toward the vehicles.
A black SUV broke through the upper gate.
Charles sat behind the wheel.
Beside him was Detective Renner.
Renner leaned through the passenger window with a rifle.
Cole shouted.
Arthur pushed Emily behind a stone wall.
Shots tore through the garden.
Hale cried out and fell.
Daniel dragged him to cover.
Cole fired at the SUV.
The windshield cracked.
Charles swerved.
The vehicle disappeared down the hillside road.
Arthur looked at Hale.
Blood spread across his chest.
Hale grabbed Arthur’s sleeve.
“Listen.”
Arthur knelt.
“The real report…”
“What about it?”
“Victoria hid it inside Emily’s grave.”
Arthur stared.
“Where?”
“Under the coffin.”
“Why?”
“Because no one would open it.”
Hale coughed.
Blood touched his lips.
“There’s more.”
Arthur leaned closer.
“Charles didn’t choose Victoria.”
“Who did?”
Hale struggled to breathe.
“Emily did.”
Arthur froze.
“That makes no sense.”
“She contacted Victoria first.”
Emily stood behind him.
Her face had gone pale.
“No.”
Hale looked at her.
“You hired her.”
Emily shook her head.
“No.”
“To investigate Charles.”
Arthur slowly turned toward his wife.
Emily stared at Hale in horror.
Then a memory seemed to strike her.
She stumbled.
Arthur caught her.
Images flashed behind her eyes.
A charity office.
Victoria smiling.
A folder exchanged across a desk.
Emily whispering:
Get close to Arthur’s uncle. Find out where the money is going.
Emily looked at Arthur.
“I brought her into our lives.”
Her voice cracked.
Arthur held her.
“No.”
“I trusted her.”
“You could not have known.”
“She worked for me first.”
The meaning became clear.
Victoria had not originally been Charles’s weapon.
Emily had hired her as an investigator.
Then Victoria had betrayed her.
Daniel looked at Hale.
“When did she switch sides?”
Hale’s breathing weakened.
“When she learned how much Lily would inherit.”
His hand fell.
He stopped moving.
Cole checked for a pulse.
Nothing.
Arthur looked toward Emily.
She was trembling.
Before he could speak, his phone rang.
The mansion.
Arthur answered.
Maria was crying.
“Mr. Sterling…”
Arthur’s heart stopped.
“What happened?”
“The panic room opened by itself.”
“Where is Lily?”
A man’s voice replaced Maria’s.
Charles.
“You found your wife.”
Arthur gripped the phone.
Charles continued.
“So I took your daughter.”
Arthur turned toward the hills.
Vale House had been a diversion.
Charles had drawn him away from the mansion.
Arthur’s voice became deadly calm.
“Where is she?”
Charles laughed softly.
“At the place where your family buried its first secret.”
The call ended.
Emily looked at Arthur.
“What did he say?”
Arthur stared toward the city.
He finally had his wife back.
May you like
And in the same moment, he had lost his daughter again.
End of Part 2
