Chapter 8 - Elizabeth’s Version of the Fire
Elizabeth locked the library door before telling them the rest. She poured three glasses of whiskey, though Mara refused hers and Marco left his untouched.
“Victor built Vale Dynamics with stolen labor and stolen fear,” Elizabeth said. “By the time I understood the scale of it, the company was too large to destroy without taking hundreds of innocent people down with it.”
“That’s convenient,” Marco said.
“It is not an excuse.”
“It sounds like one.”
“I stayed because I thought I could protect the women inside the system. I was wrong.”
Mara crossed her arms. “You could have gone to the police.”
“I did.”
Marco looked at her. “When?”
“Three days before the fire. The detective I spoke to called Victor before I left the station.”
“And then?”
“Victor told me Lena was carrying his child. He said he would have her arrested for fraud and you placed in state custody.”
“He could not have done that.”
“He had lawyers, judges, and a private security firm. He had already forced three women to sign false statements.”
“So you took me.”
“I took you because Lena asked me to.”
Mara’s expression shifted. “She asked you?”
Elizabeth nodded. “The fire began when Victor tried to enter the nursery. Lena handed you to me through the service passage. She said, ‘If I don’t come out, make him kind.’”
Marco’s throat tightened. “She gave me to you.”
“For one night.”
“And you never gave me back.”
Elizabeth looked at the floor. “Lena was injured. Victor was dead by morning.”
“Victor was dead?”
“He fell from the west staircase during the fire.”
“You said he was away.”
“That was the story we told.”
“Who killed him?”
Elizabeth’s mouth pressed thin. “I don’t know.”
“You expect me to believe that?”
“No. I expect you to understand that a frightened woman with a baby and a building full of evidence does not have the luxury of perfect choices.”
Mara leaned toward her. “Where was my mother taken?”
“Saint Agnes. Then Meadowbrook.”
“Why would you put her in a rehabilitation center?”
“Because she had a traumatic brain injury. She was delirious, terrified, and repeating names that could get her killed.”
“You had her locked away.”
“I paid for her care.”
“Without telling her daughter?”
“You were six years old.”
“I was alive.”
The words struck Elizabeth harder than accusation.
Marco stepped between them. “What happened in 2007?”
“Lena remembered everything. She remembered Victor, Sloan, the fire, and you. She wanted to find you. I told her you were safe.”
“You could have brought us together.”
“Sloan was still watching.”
“So you kept us apart.”
“I kept you alive.”
“And then you controlled every part of my life.”
Elizabeth did not deny it.
“You chose my school, my friends, my company, the women I dated,” Marco said. “Was that protection too?”
“I knew what men like your father did with affection.”
“You made me suspicious of everyone so I would never look beyond you.”
The silence that followed was worse than a confession.
Mara stepped away from the desk. “Where is she now?”
Elizabeth opened a drawer and removed a small leather notebook. She set it on the desk.
“Lena sent one final letter three months ago. She said she was living near the old Vale mill.”
Marco opened the notebook. The last page held an address written in faded blue ink.
“You knew she was there,” he said.
“I knew she might be.”
“And you let me walk into this house blind.”
“You were not supposed to come back.”
“Father’s trust forced me.”
“Victor’s trust forced you.”
“Did you arrange his death?”
Elizabeth’s face went utterly still.
Mara looked from one to the other.
“Answer me.”
“No.”
“Did Sloan?”
“I don’t know.”
The library windows exploded inward.
Darius dragged Elizabeth to the floor as glass flew across the room. Marco pulled Mara behind a bookcase. A red laser dot moved over the carpet, searching.
“Down!” Darius shouted.
Gunfire tore through the shelves. Books burst into dust. Elizabeth crawled toward the hidden wall panel behind the desk and pressed a brass switch.
The floor opened beneath Marco and Mara.
They dropped into darkness.
Marco landed hard on a padded platform, Mara against his chest. Above them, the panel slammed shut. The hidden passage filled with the sound of bullets and Darius shouting.
“You all right?” he asked.
“I think so.”
“Your mother built an escape tunnel.”
“Apparently.”
Emergency lights flickered on. The passage ran beneath the house toward the woods.
Mara looked at him. “She saved us.”
“That doesn’t erase anything.”
“No.”
“But it complicates the hatred.”
They started through the tunnel. Behind them, the house groaned as another explosion shook the foundation.
At the far end, a metal door opened onto the forest.
A black SUV waited between the trees.
Adrian Sloan stood beside it, smiling.
“Mr. Vale,” he called. “Your mother has been keeping secrets from you.”
May you like
He raised a remote control.
“I’m afraid she’s not the only one.”
