Chapter 1 - The Message Sent
The concrete room beneath the mansion was so cold that every breath Elena took seemed to hurt.
She sat on the floor, her tangled brown hair falling around her pale face.
The elegant gray dress she had worn to dinner was now wrinkled and torn across one shoulder, its hem smeared with dust.
One hand pressed against the concrete.
The other wrapped tightly around her stomach as she tried to stop herself from trembling.
Richard Hale stood over her.
The man in his sixties was still wearing the perfectly tailored black suit he had worn upstairs.
His tie remained straight.
His white pocket square was still neatly folded.
Only his face had changed.
There was nothing polished or respectable left in his expression now.
“Just tell me where it is.”
Richard leaned closer and pointed a finger at Elena.
“One sentence.”
Elena slowly raised her head.
Her eyes were red, but there was still defiance in them.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
Richard clenched his jaw.
Two large men stood behind him without moving.
One had his arms folded across his chest.
The other blocked the staircase leading upstairs.
There was no way out.
Richard gave a dry laugh.
“You think Ethan is coming to save you?”
Elena said nothing.
“I’m asking you one last time.”
He bent closer.
“The password to the phone.”
Elena stared at him for several seconds.
Then she smiled.
It was barely more than a weak curve of her lips.
But somehow, that smile made Richard stop.
“You still don’t understand, do you?” Elena whispered.
Richard frowned.
“Understand what?”
Elena slowly looked toward the phone sitting on a metal table several feet away.
Its screen was black.
“You don’t need the password anymore.”
Richard’s expression changed.
“What did you say?”
“Because what you’re looking for…”
Elena swallowed.
“…was sent ten minutes ago.”
The room went completely silent.
Richard spun toward the phone.
At that exact moment—
BANG!
The steel door at the top of the stairs burst open.
Heavy footsteps thundered downward.
“DON’T MOVE!”
A man’s voice echoed through the basement.
Both guards immediately turned.
Richard stumbled backward.
Elena closed her eyes.
For the first time that night, she allowed herself to breathe.
Twenty minutes later, the grand foyer of Hale Manor blazed beneath crystal chandeliers.
Walls of bookshelves towered around the room.
A sweeping wooden staircase curved toward the second floor.
Expensive paintings hung against cream-colored walls.
It was a home designed to display Richard Hale’s power.
And now, it was the place where that power was beginning to collapse.
Elena stood in the center of the foyer.
Her gray dress was still torn.
Her hair was still disheveled.
But she was no longer sitting at anyone’s feet.
Ethan stood close behind her.
One arm rested gently around her waist, helping her remain steady.
His other hand held up a phone.
On the screen was an audio recording.
Length:
01:47:32.
Several feet away, two police officers restrained Richard.
He was still fighting them.
“You don’t understand!”
Richard shouted.
“That woman is lying!”
Ethan didn’t look at him.
He looked only at Elena.
“Are you sure?”
Elena drew in a slow breath.
Then she raised her own phone.
“I’m sure.”
A detective standing nearby stepped forward.
“Ms. Hale, where do you want us to start?”
Elena looked at Richard.
His eyes were still furious.
But for the first time, there was something behind that anger.
Fear.
Elena touched the screen.
“Start at forty-three minutes.”
Richard instantly went pale.
“No.”
Elena pressed PLAY.
A faint hiss came from the speaker.
Then Richard’s voice filled the foyer.
Clear.
Cold.
Impossible to deny.
“If Elena discovers the transfers, we’ll make everyone believe she stole the money.”
Nobody spoke.
Ethan slowly turned toward Richard.
One of the officers tightened his grip.
The recording continued.
Another man’s voice could be heard.
“And if she gives the evidence to the police?”
Richard’s recorded voice laughed.
“Then she won’t get the chance to leave this house.”
Richard suddenly began struggling harder.
“Turn it off!”
Elena didn’t move.
“TURN IT OFF!”
Ethan stepped forward, placing himself completely between Richard and Elena.
“Don’t come near her.”
Richard stared at him.
“Ethan, listen to me.”
“You locked her in a basement.”
“I was protecting this family!”
Ethan gave a bitter laugh.
“Family?”
He held up the phone.
“You moved more than eight million dollars through three shell companies.”
Richard froze.
Elena turned toward Ethan.
“Not eight million.”
Ethan looked at her.
Elena opened another folder.
“I found a fourth account.”
She turned the screen toward the detective.
The number displayed there changed even his expression.
$27,400,000.
Richard stopped struggling.
He simply stared at the screen.
Ethan spoke quietly.
“Where did you get this?”
Elena hesitated.
“From his private server.”
Richard suddenly laughed.
It was quiet.
Strange.
Ethan narrowed his eyes.
“What’s so funny?”
Richard lifted his head.
The panic had disappeared from his face.
In its place was a smile so cold that Elena felt a chill move through her.
“Because you still think the money is the biggest secret.”
Elena felt Ethan’s arm tighten around her waist.
Richard looked directly at her.
“Did you open the folder called Hawthorne?”
Elena froze.
She had never told anyone about that folder.
Ethan looked at her.
“Elena?”
Richard smiled.
“I guess not.”
Elena immediately unlocked her phone.
Her finger moved through dozens of files.
Then she saw it.
A protected folder.
HAWTHORNE — PRIVATE
Creation date:
Twenty-seven years earlier.
A cold sensation crawled down Elena’s spine.
The officers began pulling Richard toward the front door.
But before they took him away, he turned back.
“Go ahead.”
His voice was almost calm now.
“Open it.”
Richard looked at Ethan.
“Then you’ll understand why I’d rather go to prison…”
His eyes moved between them.
“…than let either of you discover who actually owns this house.”
The front door slammed behind him.
Elena remained motionless.
Ethan stared at the screen.
“Do you know the password?”
Elena slowly shook her head.
Then the phone suddenly lit up.
A message appeared.
FACIAL RECOGNITION ACCEPTED.
Elena went pale.
She had not raised the phone toward her face.
Ethan noticed it too.
They both stared at the screen.
The folder opened automatically.
Inside was only one photograph.
An old picture.
A young woman was holding a newborn baby girl.
Written beneath the photograph were four words.
“Elena — 1998.”
Richard stood beside the woman.
But Richard was not the reason Elena stopped breathing.
There was another man in the photograph.
A man standing beside him.
And Elena recognized him immediately.
May you like
It was Ethan’s father.
The man everyone had been told died before Ethan was even born.
