Chapter 3 - The Fire Beneath Hale Manor
By midnight, police surrounded the estate.
Victor claimed the fire was accidental.
Nobody believed him.
The flames began inside the archive room.
Exactly where Hale Medical stored private family records.
Gabriel had anticipated it.
Earlier that afternoon, his investigators copied remote backups.
Victor did not know.
The recovered files were devastating.
Illegal fertility procedures.
False consent forms.
Embryo substitutions.
Payments.
NDAs.
Medical intimidation.
At least eighteen families.
Elena was not the only victim.
She was simply the one connected to Gabriel.
Then investigators found a folder labeled:
MERCER CONTINGENCY.
Elena’s name.
Gabriel’s.
Rebecca’s.
Noah’s.
Inside:
Plans for what happened if Gabriel returned.
Discredit him.
Claim extortion.
Challenge his mental stability.
If Rebecca surfaced:
Return her to guardianship.
If Elena discovered Noah’s paternity:
Declare postpartum psychiatric instability.
Elena stared at the words.
They had plans for everyone.
Lives reduced to contingencies.
Then one document appeared.
Victor’s signature.
If Mercer becomes active, relocate E. and infant immediately.
Gabriel frowned.
“Relocate where?”
Police searched deeper.
Private Hale property in Montenegro.
Remote.
No extradition complications for certain civil claims.
Elena went pale.
“He was going to take us.”
“Yes.”
The champagne tower had never been the real threat.
It was humiliation.
Control.
Delay.
Victor needed Elena inside the estate until arrangements were complete.
Her attempt to leave with sick Noah forced him to improvise publicly.
May you like
Then the ballroom doors opened before the plan could finish.
Gabriel had arrived hours before Elena and Noah were scheduled to disappear.
