Chapter 6 - THE MAN BENEATH THE HOUSEI don’t remember screaming.
I remember Ronan holding my shoulders.
I remember Evelyn signing furiously.
I remember Marcus dropping his gun and saying he had taken Evelyn only because it was the one way to force Ronan to listen.
And I remember one sentence.
“Silas didn’t take the girl out of Raven Hill.”
Ronan stared at Marcus.
“What?”
“There are tunnels beneath the estate.”
Ronan’s expression darkened.
Marcus explained.
During Prohibition, the Cain family had built hidden passages connecting the mansion, chapel, stables, and old boathouse.
Silas knew every one.
Gabriel had discovered Silas using them four years earlier.
That was the storm.
Not weather.
Operation Storm was Silas’s internal network for moving weapons, money, and information without Ronan’s knowledge.
Gabriel intended to expose him.
Silas had Gabriel killed first.
My legs almost collapsed.
“You can prove that?”
Marcus reached inside his coat.
Ronan aimed.
“Slowly.”
Marcus produced a flash drive.
“Gabriel gave me copies. I ran because Silas tried to kill me too.”
“Why come back now?”
Marcus looked at Poppy’s photograph on Ronan’s phone.
“Because Gabriel’s daughter exists.”
Evelyn struck the arm of her chair.
We looked at her.
Her hands moved.
“Tunnel. Nursery. Blue wall.”
Ronan understood first.
The old nursery.
We ran.
Behind a blue-paneled wall was a hidden door.
The tunnel smelled of wet stone.
Ronan went first.
I followed despite three men ordering me not to.
Two hundred feet underground, we heard crying.
Poppy.
I ran toward it.
A guard stepped from the darkness.
Ronan hit him before the man could raise his weapon.
Another appeared.
Then another.
The tunnel exploded into violence.
I reached the old boathouse.
Poppy sat inside a black SUV.
Silas stood beside her.
He held no gun.
He didn’t need one.
Six armed men surrounded him.
“You should have stayed poor, Mara,” he said.
I stopped.
Poppy saw me.
“Mommy!”
Silas placed a hand on her shoulder.
Ronan emerged behind me.
“Remove your hand.”
Silas smiled.
“There he is.”
“What do you want?”
“The voting proxy.”
Ronan laughed coldly.
“You kidnapped a child for paperwork?”
“I preserved an empire.”
“You murdered Gabriel.”
Silas’s smile faded.
“He was sentimental.”
My hands shook.
“You killed your nephew because he found out you were stealing?”
“No.”
Silas looked almost offended.
“I killed him because he intended to dismantle everything our family spent generations building.”
Ronan’s phone, hidden inside his coat, was recording.
Silas didn’t know.
He continued.
“Gabriel believed the Cain name could become legitimate. Clean ports. Clean unions. Clean politicians. He wanted to turn wolves into house dogs.”
“You ordered the hospital watched,” I said.
“Yes.”
“You sent men after me.”
“Yes.”
“You hid Evelyn’s medication.”
His eyes flicked toward me.
“That was unfortunate.”
Ronan’s face became murderous.
Silas laughed.
“Still pretending you’re different from me?”
“Yes,” Ronan said.
Then he lowered his gun.
Everyone froze.
“I am.”
Silas frowned.
Ronan continued.
“Because Gabriel was right.”
Police sirens erupted outside.
Silas spun toward the windows.
Marcus had transmitted the evidence.
Federal investigators, state police, and Ashport detectives surrounded the boathouse.
Silas grabbed Poppy.
That was his mistake.
Poppy bit him.
Hard.
He shouted.
She dropped beneath his arm exactly as Ronan had taught her during a security drill the night before.
I lunged.
Ronan fired.
The bullet struck the weapon Silas had just pulled from his waistband, knocking it away.
Poppy ran into my arms.
I covered her body with mine.
Silas was tackled seconds later.
For four years, I had imagined revenge.
It never looked like this.
It looked like my daughter sobbing into my coat.
It looked like Ronan kneeling beside us with blood on his knuckles.
It looked like Evelyn emerging from the tunnel and staring at Silas as officers dragged him past.
Silas stopped.
“You have no idea what happens when I talk.”
Ronan looked at him.
“Then talk.”
Silas smiled.
“You think Gabriel was the only Cain with secrets?”
His gaze shifted toward me.
Then Poppy.
“There’s something your precious Gabriel never told Mara.”
My stomach tightened.
“What?”
Silas laughed as police pushed him into the car.
Ronan turned toward Marcus.
“What was he talking about?”
Marcus went pale.
That frightened me more than Silas’s threat.
“Marcus.”
The attorney looked at Poppy.
Then at me.
“Gabriel wasn’t killed because of the money.”
“What do you mean?”
Marcus swallowed.
“He found evidence that Silas had ordered a murder years earlier.”
Ronan stepped closer.
“Whose?”
May you like
Marcus looked directly at me.
“Mara’s father.”
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