Chapter 6 - The Price of Trust
The house exploded into chaos.
Security officers ran through dark corridors.
Emergency lights flickered red.
Adrien shouted Lily's name.
Maya followed him.
They found a broken window in the east wing.
A bloodied piece of Lily's dress lay on the floor.
Adrien looked ready to destroy the world.
Then Maya noticed something.
There were no footprints outside.
No vehicle tracks.
Nothing.
“She wasn't taken through the window.”
Adrien turned.
“What?”
Maya pointed.
“The glass is outside.”
He stared.
“She was taken from inside.”
Adrien's face went cold.
“The cameras.”
“Already down.”
“Someone inside helped them.”
Maya thought quickly.
“Who knew the east wing?”
“Everyone.”
“Who knew about the emergency generator?”
Adrien turned toward security.
The chief stepped forward.
“Three people.”
“Names.”
The chief hesitated.
“Me. Vivian. And Lily.”
Adrien looked toward Vivian's empty room.
She was gone.
Twenty minutes later, Vivian was found in the garden.
But Lily was not with her.
Vivian looked terrified.
“I tried to stop them.”
Adrien grabbed her arm.
“Who?”
“The Crown.”
“Where is my sister?”
“I don't know.”
“Tell me!”
Vivian cried.
“They used the old tunnel.”
Maya immediately understood.
“The estate has tunnels?”
Vivian nodded.
“There is one passage beneath the wine cellar.”
They ran.
The tunnel was narrow.
Old.
Stone walls.
Water dripping from the ceiling.
Adrien led the way.
Maya followed.
At the end of the passage, they found Lily.
She was conscious.
Tied to a chair.
And standing behind her was a man Maya had never seen.
Older.
Gray hair.
Calm eyes.
Adrien stopped breathing.
“Dad.”
The man smiled sadly.
“Hello, son.”
Lily began crying.
“You're alive.”
Her father looked at her.
“I never wanted you involved.”
Adrien's voice shook with anger.
“You let us believe you were dead.”
“I had no choice.”
“You always had a choice.”
His father looked at Maya.
“You brought her here.”
Adrien stepped in front of Maya.
“Yes.”
“Then the family is in more danger than I feared.”
Maya asked:
“What do you mean?”
He looked at her.
“Your mother saved my life once.”
Maya froze.
“My mother?”
“She discovered evidence that The Crown was using lawyers to hide criminal assets.”
“Harper & Sloan?”
“Yes.”
“She disappeared after that?”
“She went into hiding.”
Maya's voice broke.
“She died when I was sixteen.”
He nodded.
“I know.”
Maya looked at Adrien.
He seemed just as shocked.
“How do you know?”
“Because I helped her.”
Maya stood still.
“Then why didn't she tell me?”
“Because she was protecting you.”
He explained that Maya's mother had hidden a final archive.
A physical record containing names of The Crown's members.
But before she could deliver it, she was betrayed.
Her death had been staged as an accident.
Maya felt tears fill her eyes.
“You knew.”
“I knew pieces.”
Adrien looked at his father.
“Who killed her?”
His father was silent.
Then he said:
“Someone you love.”
Maya felt her stomach drop.
Adrien stared.
“Lily?”
“No.”
“Vivian?”
“No.”
“Damon?”
“No.”
His father looked directly at Adrien.
“Your mother killed herself.”
Silence.
Maya stared.
“What?”
“She had been threatened.”
His father explained that she believed her children would be killed if she resisted.
She set the fire herself.
But before she died, she hid the archive.
The official cover story concealed the truth because The Crown wanted the family to believe she had been murdered.
Adrien's father had disappeared because he went after The Crown and failed.
He had been captured and forced into hiding.
Lily was finally released.
She ran into Adrien's arms.
Maya stood back.
The mystery seemed solved.
But it wasn't.
Because her mother's hidden archive was still missing.
That night, Maya returned to her old apartment.
Adrien insisted she take security.
She refused.
“I need one night alone.”
He reluctantly agreed.
She entered her childhood bedroom.
Boxes.
Old books.
Photographs.
She remembered her mother once telling her:
“If you ever feel lost, don't look at what's in front of you. Look at what everyone else ignores.”
Maya sat on the floor.
She studied the room.
Then noticed something she had never noticed before.
The old bookshelf.
One shelf was slightly shorter than the others.
She pulled it.
A hidden compartment opened.
Inside was a metal envelope.
Her hands trembled.
She opened it.
There were documents.
Bank accounts.
Names.
Photographs.
And one letter.
Dear Maya,
If you're reading this, I failed to keep the past away from you.
Never trust a person because they claim to love you.
Trust what they are willing to sacrifice for you.
There is one man in the Blackwood family who knows the truth.
He will try to protect you.
Don't let him.
Maya read the line again.
Then another.
His name is Adrien.
Her heart stopped.
She looked out the window.
The street was empty.
Then a black car stopped outside.
Adrien stepped out.
May you like
Maya folded the letter.
For the first time, she wondered whether the man who had protected her was hiding something much darker.
