CHAPTER 4 — THE NIGHT OF THE DROWNING

Nathaniel pushed the bed against the hidden floor panel.

“Who else knows about the tunnel?” Elena asked.

“My father built it during Prohibition,” Nathaniel said. “Only family members and senior staff knew.”

A heavy impact struck from below.

The bed shifted.

Oliver began shaking.

Elena knelt beside him.

“Look at me. You’re safe.”

He pointed toward the closet.

Inside, behind a row of children’s coats, was a narrow service door.

Nathaniel opened it.

A steep staircase descended into darkness.

“Where does it lead?” Elena asked.

“The kitchen.”

“Take Evelyn and Oliver. I’ll follow.”

Nathaniel stared at her.

“You’re coming with us.”

Another impact shook the floor.

They moved quickly.

Nathaniel carried Evelyn. Elena guided Oliver through the narrow passage.

Halfway down, Evelyn whispered, “Nathaniel.”

“I’m here.”

“You need to know what happened.”

“You can tell me when we’re safe.”

“We may not get another chance.”

They reached an old wine cellar beneath the mansion.

Nathaniel lowered Evelyn onto a wooden bench.

She took a painful breath.

“Two years ago, I discovered money was being transferred from the Hawthorne Foundation into shell companies.”

Nathaniel frowned.

“The foundation was audited.”

“By men Margaret paid.”

“Why would she steal from us?”

“She wasn’t stealing for herself.”

Evelyn looked toward the ceiling.

“She was protecting your father.”

Nathaniel’s face changed.

“My father died twelve years ago.”

“No. He disappeared twelve years ago.”

Nathaniel stepped back.

His father, Richard Hawthorne, had supposedly died in a private-plane crash over the Atlantic. No body had ever been recovered.

Evelyn continued.

“Richard was alive. He was using the foundation to move money through foreign accounts.”

“That’s impossible.”

“I found photographs. Banking records. Messages between him and Margaret.”

“And you didn’t tell me?”

“I tried.”

Tears filled Evelyn’s eyes.

“You didn’t believe me.”

Nathaniel remembered.

Elena saw the memory in his face.

Two years earlier, Evelyn had accused his dead father of being alive. Nathaniel had assumed stress and exhaustion had triggered a breakdown.

Evelyn had gone to the dock that night.

Margaret followed her.

“She struck me,” Evelyn said. “Then pushed me into the harbor.”

Oliver’s breathing quickened.

He remembered.

“I woke inside a boat tunnel under the cliff. Margaret had pulled me from the water.”

“Why save you?” Elena asked.

“She needed access codes. She needed my signature.”

Nathaniel looked sick.

“For two years?”

“She told everyone I drowned. She moved me between private clinics, then brought me here when Oliver started asking questions.”

Evelyn reached for her son.

“He saw Margaret attack me. That’s why he stopped speaking.”

Oliver nodded.

Nathaniel covered his face.

“I left him alone with the woman who destroyed his mother.”

A sound came from the cellar entrance.

Footsteps.

Margaret descended with two armed security guards.

But Elena recognized one of them.

Calvin, the driver who had brought groceries that morning.

Margaret aimed a handgun at Nathaniel.

“You always were your father’s weakest child.”

Nathaniel stepped in front of Evelyn and Oliver.

“Where is he?”

Margaret smiled.

“Closer than you think.”

Behind her, another man entered the cellar.

He was nearly seventy, with silver hair and a scar crossing one cheek.

Nathaniel whispered, “Father.”

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Richard Hawthorne looked at his son without affection.

“You’ve made a terrible mess of my house.”