Chapter 8 - The Brother's Price
The darkness lasted eleven seconds.
When the emergency lights came on, Margaret was gone.
So was Enzo.
Damian ran inside.
“Isabelle!”
She appeared at the top of the stairs, holding Lily.
“I'm here!”
“Get away from the windows.”
He escorted them into the reinforced safe room.
Lily was crying.
“Daddy, where's Mr. Bun?”
Damian knelt.
“We'll find him.”
“Did the bad man take him?”
He couldn't lie.
“Yes.”
Lily buried her face against Isabelle.
Damian turned to the security monitor.
The exterior cameras were disabled.
The backup system showed one vehicle leaving through the service gate.
Enzo had been driving.
Damian watched the footage again.
Then he noticed something.
Enzo had left the gate open.
Not because he was escaping.
Because he was allowing someone else to enter.
A second vehicle appeared on the recording.
A black sedan.
It stopped near the garden.
A woman stepped out.
She walked toward the house carrying a small child-sized backpack.
Damian recognized the woman immediately.
Margaret.
She had not left.
She had entered through another gate.
“She's inside,” he said.
Isabelle tightened her hold on Lily.
Damian called the guards.
No response.
The entire security system had been compromised.
He drew his weapon.
“Stay here.”
Isabelle caught his arm.
“Don't go alone.”
“I have to.”
“Then take me with you.”
He stared at her.
“No.”
“Damian, I have spent four years running from these people. I'm done hiding.”
He wanted to argue.
But he knew she was right.
They moved through the service corridor.
The kitchen was empty.
The dining room was empty.
Then they heard a child's voice.
“Mr. Bun?”
Lily.
Damian spun around.
The safe room door was open.
His daughter was gone.
He ran upstairs.
“Lily!”
A small sound came from the library.
He entered.
Margaret stood near the fireplace.
Lily was beside her, holding Mr. Bun.
The little girl looked confused.
“Daddy?”
Damian raised his weapon.
“Let her go.”
Margaret smiled.
“She came willingly.”
Lily looked at the woman.
“She said she knew my grandma.”
Margaret crouched.
“I do, sweetheart. I knew your grandmother very well.”
Damian stepped closer.
“Move away from my daughter.”
Margaret stood.
“You've become sentimental.”
“I said move.”
She looked at Lily.
“Do you know why your hair is white?”
Lily shook her head.
“Because you're special. You're the key to everything your father owns.”
“I'm just Lily.”
Margaret's expression hardened.
“Exactly what your mother told her.”
Isabelle entered behind Damian.
“Leave her alone.”
Margaret laughed.
“You should have stayed in the river.”
Isabelle froze.
Damian turned.
“What?”
Margaret smiled.
“Didn't you know? The car wasn't an accident. Isabelle was supposed to be inside it.”
The room fell silent.
Isabelle's voice trembled.
“You ordered it.”
“I gave the order. Victor arranged the details. But someone else made sure you survived.”
Margaret looked at Damian.
“Your father.”
Damian felt sick.
“Why?”
“Because he needed you to believe your wife was dead. He needed you angry, isolated, and easy to control. But he couldn't bring himself to kill the mother of his granddaughter.”
Isabelle stared.
“He knew I was pregnant?”
“He knew everything.”
A gunshot exploded.
Margaret fell backward.
Damian turned.
Adrian stood in the doorway.
He was holding a weapon.
“Step away from the child,” he said.
Damian raised his gun.
“Enzo.”
Adrian smiled sadly.
“That name was never mine.”
He lowered his weapon.
“I didn't come here to hurt Lily.”
“Then why are you helping Margaret?”
“Because she has something I need.”
“What?”
Adrian looked toward Isabelle.
“The original recording of your father's confession.”
Margaret began laughing from the floor.
“You idiot. You still think that recording belongs to you?”
Adrian's expression changed.
Margaret reached into her coat and pressed a small button.
A hidden speaker crackled.
Then a man's voice filled the room.
Damian recognized it immediately.
His father's voice.
If anything happens to me, the boy must never learn who ordered the first murder.
A second voice followed.
A voice Damian had trusted for years.
Victor Hale.
And what about Damian?
May you like
His father answered.
Damian was never supposed to survive either.
