Chapter 13 - The Mansion Goes Dark
Elena did not panic.
That surprised her.
Months of uncertainty had exhausted her fear.
Now there was only focus.
She locked the nursery door.
Then she opened the hidden safe.
Inside was a secondary phone connected to an independent cellular network.
Richard had not known about it.
Gerald certainly did not.
She called 911.
“This is Elena Howard.”
The dispatcher responded immediately.
“We have units responding to your address.”
“There is an intruder inside.”
“Can you identify him?”
“Gerald Pike.”
She heard another crash below.
The fire alarm continued.
“Mrs. Howard is somewhere in the house.”
“Stay secured.”
Elena looked toward the ventilation grate.
Smoke had not entered.
The alarm might be another distraction.
Then the nursery intercom clicked.
A man’s voice filled the room.
“Elena.”
Gerald.
Her skin tightened.
“Do you know why Charles liked this house?”
She said nothing.
“Because there are passages everywhere.”
Elena looked toward the bookshelf.
Mrs. Howard had once mentioned old service corridors.
Gerald knew them.
The door might not matter.
“Elena, I need the codicil.”
She moved silently toward the desk.
The original document was no longer inside the house.
Ruiz had already transferred it into evidence.
Gerald did not know that.
“I don’t have it.”
Gerald laughed through the speaker.
“You’re a bad liar.”
“I learned from your friends.”
The intercom went silent.
Elena grabbed a heavy wooden chair and wedged it beneath the handle of the narrow service door behind the bookshelf.
Seconds later, someone tested it from the other side.
Her heart pounded.
“Elena.”
Gerald’s voice came through the wood now.
“You don’t understand what your husband’s family did.”
“You framed me.”
“Because I needed Richard angry.”
“You tried to destroy my marriage.”
“I needed him isolated.”
“You used Vanessa.”
“She volunteered.”
“What about the stairs?”
Silence.
Gerald finally answered.
“That was not my instruction.”
Elena believed him.
Not because Gerald was trustworthy.
Because the storage messages confirmed it.
“You lost control of her.”
“I underestimated her desperation.”
Elena placed her hand against her stomach.
“So what was your plan?”
“To return what Charles stole.”
“By becoming him?”
The service door stopped moving.
That sentence landed.
Gerald’s voice changed.
“You know nothing about my father.”
“I know revenge didn’t bring him back.”
“He never died in that accident.”
Elena froze.
The old photograph.
Derek Hale alive one year after his supposed death.
“Where is he?”
Gerald gave a small laugh.
“Ask Daniel.”
The service door suddenly shook.
The chair moved an inch.
Elena backed away.
Sirens sounded faintly outside.
Gerald heard them.
The pressure on the door stopped.
Elena thought he was leaving.
Then the intercom clicked one last time.
“I never wanted your child hurt.”
Elena stared at the speaker.
“That doesn’t make you innocent.”
“No.”
Gerald’s voice became quieter.
“But it makes Vanessa much more dangerous than you realize.”
The connection ended.
Police entered the mansion minutes later.
Gerald had disappeared through the underground tunnels.
They found Mrs. Howard locked inside a pantry.
She was frightened but unharmed.
On the library table, Gerald had left something behind.
A photograph.
Vanessa stood beside Daniel outside a hotel.
The date was six months ago.
Elena stared at it.
Vanessa had claimed she had not known whether Daniel was alive.
May you like
She had lied.
And if she had been secretly meeting Daniel months before Elena’s fall, then Vanessa’s role was much larger than anyone had imagined.
