Chapter 6 – Emma Remembers
The mansion no longer felt like a home.
It had become a fortress.
Armed guards patrolled every hallway. Every delivery truck was searched. Every employee passed through metal detectors before entering the estate.
Yet Alessandro felt less secure than ever.
Someone had poisoned his coffee.
Someone had infiltrated his staff.
Someone had ordered the death of a three-year-old girl.
And they were always one step ahead.
Marco pinned photographs across the wall of the estate's security office.
Daniel Alvarez.
Richard Kane.
The fake pastry chef.
The Raven Society pin.
Project Nightfall.
Strings of red thread connected names and dates.
But one question remained unanswered.
Why was Emma so important?
She had recognized the smell in the coffee.
She had remembered the hidden flash drive.
And somehow, she noticed things adults overlooked.
Marco stared at her drawing from the previous day, still lying on his desk.
It showed a little house.
A big tree.
Three smiling people.
And, in one corner, a man wearing a black bird on his jacket.
He hadn't noticed it before.
Sophia found Emma sitting in the library floor, quietly coloring.
"What are you drawing, sweetheart?"
Emma looked up.
"The bird man."
Sophia's smile disappeared.
"What bird man?"
"The one who came to our house."
Sophia's heart skipped.
"When?"
"Before Daddy went to heaven."
She knelt beside her daughter.
"Emma..."
"Can you tell Mommy about him?"
Emma nodded.
"He wore shiny shoes."
"And a black coat."
"He talked to Daddy outside."
"What did they say?"
Emma frowned.
"I don't remember."
"You don't have to rush."
Emma closed her eyes, squeezing Bunny tightly.
After a long silence, she whispered,
"He wanted the folder."
Sophia froze.
"What else?"
"Daddy said..."
"...'I'll never give it to you.'"
Alessandro and Marco entered the library just in time to hear the last sentence.
Marco immediately sat beside Emma.
"Sweetheart, do you remember what the man looked like?"
Emma shook her head.
"I only saw his shoes."
"What was special about them?"
"They were very shiny."
"And..."
She hesitated.
"...one shoe made a funny sound."
Marco leaned forward.
"What kind of sound?"
Emma tapped the wooden floor.
"Click..."
"...click..."
"...click..."
"As he walked."
Marco looked at Alessandro.
"A limp."
Alessandro nodded.
"Or a metal heel."
That afternoon, Marco searched every file connected to Richard Kane.
Board meetings.
Charity events.
Security footage.
Photographs from the past ten years.
Hundreds of faces.
Then—
He stopped on a photograph taken at a fundraising gala three years earlier.
Richard Kane stood beside four executives.
One man leaned slightly to his left.
His right shoe had a polished metal heel support.
Marco zoomed in.
Then looked at the man's name beneath the photograph.
Victor Haines.
The estate's private physician.
The same doctor who had tested Alessandro's poisoned coffee.
The same doctor who had visited the mansion for nearly twelve years.
Marco's blood ran cold.
Without warning, the office door opened.
Alessandro stepped inside.
"You found something."
Marco silently turned the monitor toward him.
Alessandro stared at the photograph.
"No..."
He whispered.
"It can't be."
"You've trusted him for years."
"I trusted many people."
Marco enlarged another image.
Dr. Haines entering Westbridge Chemical six months earlier.
Another.
Dr. Haines shaking hands with Richard Kane.
Another.
Dr. Haines leaving a private airport with an unidentified passenger.
The evidence kept growing.
"He knew," Alessandro said quietly.
"He knew exactly what was in your coffee," Marco replied.
"And he identified the poison almost immediately."
Because he had seen it before.
At that very moment...
Dr. Victor Haines sat alone in his downtown medical office.
He calmly packed documents into a leather briefcase.
A nurse knocked.
"Doctor?"
"Yes?"
"The police called."
"What did they want?"
"They asked if you've treated anyone from Westbridge Chemical."
Dr. Haines smiled politely.
"I'll return their call."
The nurse left.
His smile vanished.
He walked to a hidden safe behind a painting.
Inside were passports.
Cash.
A handgun.
And another Raven Society pin.
He reached for the passport—
Then stopped.
Someone had already opened the safe.
A small white envelope lay inside.
It hadn't been there before.
Victor slowly opened it.
Inside was a single photograph.
It showed him... standing beside Richard Kane.
Taken from a distance.
He turned the picture over.
Three handwritten words stared back at him.
YOU FAILED US.
Victor's hands began to tremble.
For the first time in years...
The doctor looked afraid.
Back at the estate, Marco picked up his phone.
"Bring Dr. Haines here."
The dispatcher answered almost immediately.
"Sir..."
"We can't."
Marco's heart sank.
"Why?"
"His office is empty."
"The staff says he resigned thirty minutes ago."
"And?"
"They don't know where he went."
Marco slowly lowered the phone.
Alessandro looked out the window toward the darkening sky.
"The man we've trusted for twelve years..."
"...just disappeared."
And somewhere across the city, Dr. Victor Haines glanced repeatedly into his rearview mirror as he sped toward the interstate.
He wasn't running from the police.
He was running from the Raven Society.
Because he knew something Alessandro did not.
Richard Kane wasn't the leader.
May you like
He was only following orders.
And the true mastermind had been much closer to Alessandro... all along.
