Chapter 4 - THE EAST WING
They escaped through a maintenance tunnel that opened behind the pantry.
Noah pushed the hidden panel aside.
The kitchen was empty.
Rain hammered the windows.
A storm had moved over the estate.
Perfect.
Noise could hide them.
It could also hide whoever was hunting them.
Noah led Lily upstairs.
The east wing began behind a pair of heavy wooden doors chained together since the fire.
A sign read:
UNSAFE — DO NOT ENTER.
Noah grabbed a fireplace poker from the sitting room.
“What are you doing?” Lily whispered.
“Breaking in.”
“Dad will be mad.”
Noah looked at her.
“Lily.”
She swallowed.
“Right.”
Together they forced the chain loose.
The doors opened.
The smell hit them first.
Burned wood.
Dust.
Something chemical.
Three years had passed, but the fire still seemed trapped inside the walls.
Their flashlight beams moved across blackened wallpaper.
Family portraits hung crooked.
The ceiling sagged in several places.
Lily stayed close.
“Where’s the library?”
“End of the hall.”
They passed their mother’s old music room.
Noah stopped.
The piano was still there.
Half burned.
One family photograph remained on top.
Evelyn holding baby Lily.
Richard standing beside Noah.
All four smiling.
Noah wanted to smash it.
Instead, he turned it facedown.
They reached the library.
Most of the shelves had collapsed.
Rain leaked through cracks in the roof.
Noah searched the walls.
“Grandpa’s portrait.”
Lily pointed.
“There.”
A huge painting leaned beneath a burned sheet.
Noah pulled it away.
Behind it was a safe.
“Of course.”
He tried the handle.
Locked.
Lily studied the keypad.
“What would Mom use?”
“Birthday?”
“Too easy.”
“Anniversary?”
Noah thought.
Then he remembered something.
Their mother had always hated the date the foundation was created.
She called it “the day our family forgot what money was for.”
Noah entered the foundation’s founding date.
Red light.
Wrong.
Lily whispered, “Try the fire.”
Noah looked at her.
“The date Mom disappeared.”
He entered it.
Green.
The safe clicked open.
Inside was a red leather ledger.
Noah grabbed it.
He opened the first page.
Names.
Hundreds of them.
Doctors.
Judges.
Politicians.
Hospital administrators.
Police officers.
Beside each name were dates and payments.
Then Noah found one he recognized.
DR. SAMUEL MERCER — $4,700,000.
Another.
VANESSA CROSS — $1,250,000.
Noah stared.
Vanessa Cross.
Not Whitmore.
Not yet.
Lily pointed lower.
“Noah.”
There was another name.
RICHARD WHITMORE — AUTHORIZATION LEVEL: PRIMARY.
Noah’s stomach twisted.
Then headlights swept across the library wall.
A car had arrived.
They rushed to the window.
A black sedan stopped in the courtyard.
The rear door opened.
Their father stepped out.
Richard Whitmore looked exactly as Noah remembered.
Tall.
Perfect suit.
Gray beginning at his temples.
Controlled.
For one stupid second, Noah wanted to run downstairs.
He wanted his father to hug him and explain everything.
Then another car arrived.
Dr. Mercer stepped out.
Vanessa came through the front entrance.
The three adults met beneath the covered driveway.
Not enemies.
Partners.
Richard looked toward the mansion.
Then he said something Noah couldn’t hear.
Vanessa answered.
Richard slapped her.
Lily gasped.
Noah pulled her away from the window.
Something was wrong.
Vanessa staggered.
Mercer stepped between them.
Richard pointed at the house.
Even through the rain, Noah could read his lips.
Find my children.
Then Lily whispered, “Noah.”
She was looking inside the safe.
There was something behind where the ledger had been.
A small digital recorder.
Noah pressed play.
Static.
Then his father’s voice filled the burned library.
“If Evelyn refuses to sign, Mercer will handle her.”
Another voice answered.
Vanessa.
“And the children?”
Richard paused.
Then said:
“They’re young.”
Noah stopped breathing.
“They’ll forget.”
The recording continued.
“But if they remember anything from that night…”
A long silence.
Then Richard Whitmore finished the sentence.
“…we’ll make sure nobody believes them.”
May you like
Downstairs, the front door slammed.
Their father was inside the house.
