Chapter 18 - The Traitor at Voss ManorFor the first time since Sera had entered Voss Manor, Damen trusted no one.
Security personnel were confined to assigned areas.
Phones were collected.
Vehicles were searched.
Access logs were copied.
Marcus personally reviewed every employee who had entered the estate during the previous year.
Forty-eight people.
Gardeners.
Chefs.
Drivers.
Housekeepers.
Accountants.
Security specialists.
Sera watched suspicion infect the house.
She hated it.
“This is what they want,” she told Damen.
“What?”
“For you to stop trusting everyone.”
“One of them is a traitor.”
“Maybe.”
“My father wrote it.”
“Your father also faked his death for twelve years.”
Damen stared.
“Fair.”
They reviewed staff records together.
At 2:14 A.M., Sera noticed something.
“Go back.”
Marcus scrolled.
“Which file?”
“Estate physician.”
Dr. Nathan Cole.
Fifty-four.
Employed by the Voss family for nine years.
Damen frowned.
“What?”
Sera pointed.
“He worked at St. Catherine’s Private Hospital.”
“So?”
“That’s where Grant took me after I broke my arm.”
Silence.
Damen looked at Marcus.
“Bring Cole here.”
Cole was gone.
His room had been cleared.
His car remained in the garage.
Security footage showed him entering the east wing at 11:32 P.M.
He never appeared leaving.
Marcus searched the service passages.
Thirty minutes later they discovered an old maintenance tunnel beneath the estate.
It opened near the cliffs.
Cole had escaped by boat.
But he had left something behind.
A medical bag.
Inside were sedatives.
Documents.
And copies of Sera’s old hospital records.
Damen went very still.
Sera picked up one page.
Her own signature appeared at the bottom.
Except she had never signed it.
It authorized involuntary psychiatric treatment.
Another document listed Grant as her medical proxy.
A third listed Thomas.
Then she found the worst one.
A death certificate.
Her name.
Sera Hargrove Voss.
Cause of death blank.
Date blank.
Prepared in advance.
Damen took it from her.
His face became terrifying.
“They were planning to kill you.”
“No.”
Sera looked at the form.
“They were planning to make me disappear.”
Marcus entered.
“We found Cole.”
“Where?”
“Not him physically. His burner phone pinged near Providence.”
Damen reached for his coat.
Sera stopped him.
“I’m coming.”
“No.”
“Damen.”
“You were kidnapped forty-eight hours ago.”
“And I’m still standing.”
He looked at her.
She stepped closer.
“They keep using me to control you because everyone assumes I’m your weakness.”
“You are.”
“No.”
Sera touched his chest.
“I’m your wife.”
That silenced him.
“Take me with you.”
An hour later, they reached an abandoned clinic outside Providence.
Cole was inside.
But he was not alone.
Viktor sat tied to a chair.
Cole held a gun against his head.
Damen entered with Sera beside him.
Cole laughed.
“There she is.”
Damen raised his weapon.
“Drop it.”
Cole pressed the gun harder against Viktor.
“Not yet.”
Sera stared at the doctor.
“I remember you.”
Cole smiled.
“I remember you too.”
“You told the emergency room nurse I was clumsy.”
“Grant paid extremely well.”
Damen’s weapon shifted.
Sera touched his arm.
Not yet.
Cole looked at Viktor.
“This old man destroyed hundreds of lives.”
“So did Charles,” Sera said.
“Yes.”
“And Grant.”
“Yes.”
“And you.”
Cole’s smile disappeared.
“You signed fake medical reports.”
Silence.
“You helped convince people I was unstable.”
Cole’s jaw tightened.
“You made money from my fear.”
She took one step closer.
Damen whispered, “Sera.”
She continued.
“And now you’re standing in an abandoned clinic holding a gun against an old man because the world you helped build is collapsing.”
Cole’s hand trembled.
“You think you’re strong now?”
“No.”
Sera’s voice remained calm.
“I know I am.”
Cole turned the gun toward her.
That was his mistake.
Damen fired.
The bullet struck Cole’s shoulder.
Marcus moved instantly.
Within seconds, Cole was disarmed and pinned to the floor.
Damen rushed to Sera.
“You all right?”
“Yes.”
He checked anyway.
Behind them, Viktor laughed weakly.
Damen turned.
“What?”
Viktor looked at Sera.
“You married above yourself, son.”
Sera smiled.
Damen did not.
Then Viktor’s face changed.
“There’s something you both need to know.”
Damen untied him.
“What?”
Viktor looked directly at Sera.
“Your mother’s ledger wasn’t the reason they hunted you.”
Sera felt the room tilt.
“Then why?”
May you like
Viktor swallowed.
“Because Margaret left you ownership of something worth far more than Hargrove Shipping.”
