Chapter 7 - THE BLOOD ON THE DEED
Emma lunged toward Isabella.
Dr. Wells struck her across the face with the gun.
She fell beside the medical bed.
Her cheek burned.
Isabella placed one heel on Emma’s yellow glove.
“Do not confuse bravery with importance.”
Emma looked beneath the bed.
A dark wooden box had been pushed against the wall.
Claire’s initials were carved into the lid.
Emma reached for it.
Isabella kicked her hand away.
“That belongs to me.”
The doctor moved toward the control panel.
“We need to leave.”
“William will find us.”
“If William is alive.”
Emma’s stomach tightened.
The gunshot through the phone could have hit him.
Or Marcus.
Isabella opened a locked cabinet.
Inside were passports, cash, and medication.
She had planned to disappear.
Dr. Wells looked at the passports.
“You promised we would go together.”
Isabella did not answer.
The doctor understood.
“You were leaving me.”
“You made too many mistakes.”
“I kept Claire alive when you overdosed her.”
“You also failed to destroy the recordings.”
Wells raised the gun.
“You need me.”
“No.”
Isabella pressed a button beneath the console.
The doctor’s expression changed.
He grabbed his chest.
A needle protruded from the chair behind him.
Isabella had hidden an injector in the upholstery.
Wells collapsed.
Emma crawled toward him.
“What did you give him?”
“The same medication he gave Claire.”
Wells gasped.
His fingers grabbed Emma’s sleeve.
“The box.”
He pointed weakly beneath the bed.
“Take it.”
Isabella kicked him onto his back.
“Adrian always wanted forgiveness after payment.”
The chamber door shook.
Someone struck it from the other side.
William’s voice shouted.
“Emma.”
She crawled toward the wooden box.
Isabella grabbed her hair.
Emma twisted and struck Isabella with the metal latch.
The sapphire ring cut Emma’s forehead.
Blood ran into her eye.
The door burst open.
William entered with Marcus.
One loyal guard supported the other.
Blood covered Marcus’s shoulder.
The gunshot had struck him.
William saw the medical bed.
Then the name Claire had scratched into the frame.
His face emptied.
“What happened here?”
Isabella backed toward the emergency exit.
“Your wife betrayed you.”
William looked at Dr. Wells.
The doctor struggled to speak.
“Claire lived.”
William dropped beside him.
“For how long?”
“Three days.”
The answer broke something inside him.
“Did she ask for me?”
Wells nodded.
“She asked for Ethan.”
William closed his eyes.
Isabella pressed another button.
The chamber alarms activated.
A countdown appeared on the monitor.
Five minutes.
She opened the emergency exit and ran.
Marcus fired.
The bullet missed.
The steel door closed behind her.
Emma pulled the wooden box from beneath the bed.
Inside were original property deeds.
A voice recorder.
And a small envelope addressed to William.
He opened it.
Claire’s handwriting covered one page.
William.
If you find this, Isabella has already made you believe I died without speaking.
Ethan is your son.
The company’s land was stolen.
My death is part of the same crime.
Do not protect the Sterling name by sacrificing the people it harmed.
Protect Ethan by becoming a man who can tell him the truth.
The countdown reached four minutes.
William folded the letter.
Then he looked toward the sealed exit.
“I’m going after her.”
Emma grabbed his sleeve.
“Your son is trapped in this mansion.”
The words stopped him.
For years, William had chosen the company before his family.
Isabella had counted on him doing it again.
He looked at Claire’s letter.
Then toward the tunnel where Ethan waited.
“Marcus, open the guest exit.”
“What about Isabella?”
William picked up the wooden box.
May you like
“She can run.”
“She cannot take the truth with her.”
