CHAPTER 12 — BLACKTHORN BURNS
Nathan had been taken from federal transport by men using an emergency medical order authorized through Thomas’s old legal office.
Adrian brought him back to Blackthorn Manor.
The house was already burning when we arrived.
Firefighters surrounded the estate, but Adrian had sealed the gates and activated hidden fuel lines beneath the eastern wing.
Mercer ordered me to remain inside the command vehicle.
I ignored him.
Through the front windows, I saw Nathan struggling against the white chair.
Adrian stood behind him with a gun.
A speaker system carried his voice across the lawn.
“Julian, send Isabella inside.”
My father stepped forward.
“You want me.”
“I want the shares.”
“They are not transferable under coercion.”
Adrian laughed.
“Evelyn thought of everything.”
He pressed the gun against Nathan’s head.
“Perhaps Isabella will come inside for her husband.”
“No,” I said.
Adrian looked toward the cameras.
“Then watch him die.”
Nathan began shouting.
“Don’t come in, Isabella!”
It was the first selfless sentence I had ever heard from him.
Adrian struck him.
The fire spread across the roof.
Mercer’s tactical team located the tunnel entrance near the service road. They could reach the grand hall from below, but the passage might collapse.
I remembered the original renovation plans.
The tunnel opened beneath the wine cellar, but a second maintenance shaft led to the library.
I had discovered it months ago while hiding copies of Nathan’s invoices.
I gave Mercer the route.
His team entered.
My father approached the front doors alone as a distraction.
Adrian opened them.
Heat rolled across the lawn.
“Where is Isabella?”
“Beyond your reach.”
Adrian raised the pistol.
Before he could fire, Mercer’s team burst through the library wall.
Nathan threw himself sideways with the chair.
The shot missed my father.
Adrian ran toward the staircase.
I entered through the side corridor.
Smoke filled the grand hall.
The chandelier above us groaned as its support cables began to fail.
Adrian saw me.
He smiled.
“There she is.”
He aimed.
Nathan, still tied to the chair, drove his body into Adrian’s legs.
The gun fired into the ceiling.
The chandelier fell.
I rolled behind a stone pillar.
Glass and metal crashed across the hall.
When the smoke cleared, Nathan lay beneath part of the broken frame.
Adrian had disappeared.
A hidden door behind the fireplace stood open.
I crawled toward Nathan.
Blood ran from his forehead.
“Why?” I asked.
He could barely focus.
“Because once,” he whispered, “you loved me.”
Firefighters rushed in.
They lifted the chandelier frame.
As they carried Nathan outside, an agent emerged from the hidden passage.
“Adrian reached the river.”
Mercer looked toward the dark water beyond the estate.
A speedboat was racing away from shore.
My father watched Blackthorn Manor burn.
Then his phone received a message.
May you like
It contained coordinates and five words.
BRING ISABELLA. BRING THE ORIGINAL RECORDING.
