Chapter 5 - THE TRAP BENEATH THE PALACE
Leah heard Alexander move through the darkness.
“Everyone stay still.”
His voice was controlled.
Vale breathed heavily somewhere near the wall.
Alexander’s mother remained remarkably calm.
“Alexander.”
“Yes?”
“My handbag.”
“What about it?”
“There’s a flashlight inside.”
Leah almost laughed.
Alexander found the bag.
A small beam cut through the darkness.
His mother looked at him.
“You see?”
“See what?”
“You should always listen to your mother.”
Even Alexander smiled for half a second.
Then the moment disappeared.
Vale walked toward the cellar door.
“It’s electronically locked.”
Alexander examined it.
“Can you override it?”
“Not from inside.”
Leah looked around.
“Is there another exit?”
Alexander shook his head.
“Not officially.”
His mother raised an eyebrow.
“Officially?”
“This palace is four hundred years old.”
He aimed the flashlight toward the stone walls.
“There are passages nobody uses anymore.”
Leah examined the floor.
Then she noticed something.
Air.
A faint current touched her ankle.
She crouched.
“Here.”
Alexander joined her.
A narrow gap ran beneath a wooden wine rack.
Together they pulled it aside.
Behind it was an iron door.
Vale stared.
“I’ve never seen that.”
Alexander pushed.
It opened.
A narrow tunnel disappeared into darkness.
His mother sighed.
“Well.”
Alexander looked at her.
“What?”
“I always wondered where that went.”
“You knew about this?”
“I was married to your father for forty-three years.”
She smiled.
“Your father enjoyed secrets.”
They entered the tunnel.
Alexander pushed his mother’s wheelchair carefully over the uneven stones.
Leah walked beside her.
Vale followed.
After several minutes, they reached another staircase.
Alexander opened the door at the top.
They emerged behind the palace greenhouse.
Security officers immediately surrounded them.
Alexander’s chief of staff ran forward.
“Sir.”
“Status?”
“We found Vanessa.”
Leah’s pulse jumped.
“Where?”
“In the west library.”
Alexander’s expression hardened.
“Take me to her.”
They crossed the palace quickly.
Vanessa sat calmly inside the library.
Two guards stood behind her.
Her silver gown was immaculate.
She held a glass of water.
When Alexander entered, she smiled.
“There you are.”
Alexander stopped.
“You kidnapped my mother.”
Vanessa blinked.
“No.”
“You remained inside the palace.”
“Yes.”
“You threatened Leah.”
Vanessa looked at Leah.
“I told her she’d lose her job.”
“Someone sent her photographs of her home.”
“That wasn’t me.”
Alexander stepped closer.
“Why should I believe you?”
Vanessa set down the glass.
“Because if I wanted your mother hurt, I wouldn’t have missed.”
The room went silent.
Leah stared at her.
Vanessa sighed.
“That sounded worse than I intended.”
Alexander’s voice was ice.
“Much worse.”
Vanessa leaned back.
“Alexander, someone is framing me.”
“Convenient.”
“Look at the transfers.”
“We did.”
“Then look carefully.”
Alexander’s mother entered behind them.
Vanessa’s confidence faltered.
“You.”
The older woman smiled.
“Disappointed?”
Vanessa said nothing.
Mrs. Bellgrave rolled closer.
“You tried to intimidate me.”
“Yes.”
“You raised your hand.”
Vanessa looked away.
“Yes.”
“You are arrogant.”
Vanessa’s jaw tightened.
“Probably.”
“You are cruel.”
Vanessa’s eyes flashed.
“Sometimes.”
“But are you a thief?”
Vanessa looked directly at her.
“No.”
Mrs. Bellgrave nodded.
“I believe you.”
Alexander stared at his mother.
“What?”
Leah was equally shocked.
Vanessa looked almost offended.
“Why?”
Mrs. Bellgrave answered calmly.
“Because thieves hide.”
She looked Vanessa up and down.
“You prefer an audience.”
Leah almost smiled.
Alexander did not.
“Mother, fourteen million dollars is missing.”
“I know.”
“And Vanessa is connected to Brightwell.”
Vanessa frowned.
“No, I’m not.”
Leah stepped forward.
“I saw you arguing with Martin Crane.”
Vanessa looked at her.
“Because he was blackmailing me.”
Everyone went silent.
Alexander stared at her.
“With what?”
Vanessa’s face tightened.
“Photographs.”
“What photographs?”
“Personal ones.”
Alexander waited.
Vanessa exhaled.
“Of me and Richard Vale.”
Vale stepped into the doorway.
Vanessa froze.
His face collapsed.
Alexander looked between them.
“You two were having an affair?”
Neither answered.
Mrs. Bellgrave sighed.
“How painfully predictable.”
Vanessa glared at her.
“It lasted three months.”
Vale looked at the floor.
Alexander rubbed his forehead.
“And Martin knew.”
“Yes.”
“He demanded money?”
“At first.”
“How much?”
“Two hundred thousand.”
“And then?”
Vanessa’s expression changed.
“He stopped asking for money.”
Alexander noticed.
“What did he want?”
“Access.”
“To what?”
Vanessa looked toward the desk.
“Guest lists.”
“Why?”
“I don’t know.”
“Security schedules?”
“Yes.”
“Private donor information?”
“Yes.”
Alexander’s eyes narrowed.
“And you gave it to him?”
Vanessa’s silence answered.
Leah felt anger rise.
“You gave a blackmailer access to private information?”
Vanessa snapped.
“You have no idea what was at stake.”
Leah stared at her.
“You tried to slap an elderly woman because she questioned you.”
Vanessa stood.
“Yes.”
Her voice shook with anger.
“And I was wrong.”
Everyone froze.
Vanessa looked at Mrs. Bellgrave.
“I was humiliated.”
“I was angry.”
“I behaved disgracefully.”
She swallowed.
“But I did not steal fourteen million dollars.”
Alexander studied her.
“Then help us prove it.”
Vanessa laughed bitterly.
“You still don’t understand.”
“Understand what?”
“Martin wasn’t stealing from you.”
Alexander frowned.
“What?”
“He was moving money for someone else.”
“Who?”
Vanessa looked toward Vale.
Vale shook his head desperately.
“Don’t.”
Vanessa ignored him.
“Your chief financial officer.”
Alexander’s expression changed.
“Daniel Mercer?”
Vanessa nodded.
Leah had seen Mercer earlier that evening.
He had opened the gala.
He had praised Alexander’s mother.
He had announced a five-million-dollar donation to the children’s hospital.
Alexander immediately called his chief of staff.
“Find Mercer.”
The man made a call.
Then another.
His face slowly changed.
“He’s gone.”
Alexander stared at him.
“What do you mean, gone?”
“His driver says he left forty minutes ago.”
“Where?”
“No one knows.”
Vanessa whispered.
“He knows we found the transfers.”
Alexander turned toward security.
“Freeze every account he can access.”
The chief of staff began typing.
Then stopped.
His face went white.
“Sir.”
Alexander looked at him.
“What?”
“We’re too late.”
He turned the tablet around.
A series of transactions covered the screen.
Alexander stared.
“How much?”
The chief of staff swallowed.
“Not fourteen million.”
Leah felt dread settle into her stomach.
“How much?”
He looked at Alexander.
“Two hundred and eighty-six million dollars.”
Nobody moved.
Alexander stared at the screen.
“That’s impossible.”
“It happened during the blackout.”
Vale whispered.
“The blackout wasn’t for your mother.”
Alexander slowly turned.
Vale continued.
“It was to get you away from your phone.”
Leah suddenly understood.
The kidnapping.
The cellar.
The threat.
The missing girl.
Every event had been designed to distract Alexander.
Vanessa whispered.
“Mercer never wanted fourteen million.”
“That was a test.”
Alexander looked at her.
“For what?”
“To see whether he could move money without you noticing.”
Alexander’s phone rang.
Unknown number.
Everyone stared at it.
He answered.
“Mercer.”
A man laughed softly.
“Alexander.”
Alexander’s expression became stone.
“Where are you?”
“Far enough.”
“You stole from me.”
“No.”
Mercer sounded amused.
“I stole from a man who stopped paying attention.”
Alexander looked around the room.
“You touched my mother.”
“That wasn’t part of my plan.”
“Then whose plan was it?”
Silence.
Mercer laughed again.
“You still think I’m in charge.”
Alexander’s eyes narrowed.
“Who is?”
Mercer’s voice became quieter.
“Ask Leah.”
Everyone turned toward her.
Leah froze.
“What?”
Mercer continued.
“She’s been carrying the answer for four years.”
Leah’s heart began pounding.
“I don’t know you.”
“No.”
Mercer sounded almost pleased.
“But I knew your father.”
Leah stopped breathing.
Her father had died six years earlier.
Alexander stared at her.
Mercer continued.
“Ask her why her father really died.”
The call disconnected.
Leah stood motionless.
Alexander lowered the phone.
“What was your father’s name?”
Leah looked at him.
“Thomas Morgan.”
Alexander’s mother gasped.
Leah turned.
The elderly woman had gone pale.
“You knew him?”
Mrs. Bellgrave stared at Leah as if seeing her for the first time.
“Yes.”
Her voice was barely audible.
Alexander looked at his mother.
“How?”
She didn’t answer immediately.
Instead, she reached beneath her shawl.
She removed a tiny silver key hanging from a chain around her neck.
She placed it in Leah’s palm.
Leah stared at it.
“What is this?”
Mrs. Bellgrave closed Leah’s fingers around the key.
“Your father gave it to me six years ago.”
Leah’s eyes filled with confusion.
“Why?”
Mrs. Bellgrave looked directly at her.
“Because three days before he died, Thomas Morgan came to this palace.”
Leah could barely breathe.
“He told me someone inside Bellgrave International was stealing millions.”
Alexander stared at his mother.
“You never told me this.”
“I couldn’t prove it.”
Leah looked at the key.
“What does it open?”
Mrs. Bellgrave’s answer changed everything.
“A safe-deposit box your father made me promise never to open.”
Leah whispered.
“Until when?”
Mrs. Bellgrave looked toward the dark windows.
“Until the person who tried to kill him came back for the money.”
The room became completely silent.
Then Leah’s phone vibrated.
Another unknown message.
This time there was no photograph.
Only one sentence.
YOUR FATHER SURVIVED THE FIRST CRASH.
Leah stared at the words.
Her hands began shaking.
A second message appeared.
HE DIDN’T SURVIVE WHAT HAPPENED AFTERWARD.
And beneath it was an address.
May you like
An abandoned Bellgrave warehouse.
Forty miles outside the city.
