Chapter 7 - Someone Inside the Baron House Was Lying
By the time Elias reached the Baron estate, flames were visible through the second-floor windows.
Fire crews covered the lawn.
Smoke rolled from the east wing.
Elias stared from the vehicle.
“My father's study.”
Daniel nodded.
“Origin appears to be near there.”
“Of course.”
Clara sat beside Elias.
“Don't go inside.”
“I wasn't planning to.”
She gave him a skeptical look.
“Good.”
Elias looked at her.
“You sound disappointed.”
“I’m surprised.”
Despite the chaos, the corner of his mouth lifted.
Then Margot appeared.
She ran across the driveway barefoot, coat pulled over a silk robe.
“Elias!”
Clara stiffened.
Margot reached the vehicle.
“Oh my God, where were you?”
Elias looked at her bare feet.
“At home, apparently.”
“What?”
“Nothing.”
Margot glanced at Clara.
Recognition flashed.
So did fear.
“You.”
Clara said nothing.
Margot looked at Elias.
“You lied.”
“Yes.”
“You said an old groundskeeper found you.”
“I was curious how you'd react.”
“You were testing me?”
“Yes.”
Margot’s face reddened.
“My home is burning and you're playing games?”
“Your home?”
She realized the mistake immediately.
Elias smiled coldly.
“Interesting.”
Margot stepped back.
“I didn't mean—”
“Of course.”
Victor arrived ten minutes later.
Perfect coat.
Perfect posture.
Perfect concern.
He approached Elias.
“Thank God.”
“You already knew I was safe.”
Victor glanced at Clara.
“I hoped.”
“You asked me to bring her.”
Victor smiled faintly.
“Then I'm glad you listened.”
Clara folded her arms.
“I didn't.”
Victor regarded her.
“You look like Thomas.”
The air changed.
Clara stared.
Victor continued casually.
“Especially around the eyes.”
Elias watched him.
“You knew Thomas survived.”
Victor’s expression remained calm.
“I suspected.”
“For seventeen years?”
“I've suspected many things.”
“Did you suspect my medication had been altered?”
Margot looked sharply at Victor.
Victor did not.
That told Elias something.
“What medication?”
“Wrong answer.”
Victor sighed.
“Elias, you nearly died. You're emotional.”
“Everyone keeps telling me that.”
“Because you are.”
Firefighters broke one of the east-wing windows.
Glass crashed onto the terrace.
Victor lowered his voice.
“Your father spent his life teaching us not to react without facts.”
“My father also left a note telling me not to let you reach his hidden office.”
For the first time, Victor lost control.
Only for a second.
But Elias saw it.
Clara saw it.
Daniel definitely saw it.
Victor recovered.
“What hidden office?”
Elias smiled.
“Another wrong answer.”
Margot looked between them.
“What is happening?”
Victor snapped, “Go inside.”
“The house is on fire.”
“Then go somewhere else.”
Margot stared at him.
Their relationship suddenly looked different.
Not lovers.
Employer and employee.
She turned and walked away.
Victor leaned toward Elias.
“You are making a mistake.”
“Which one?”
“Trusting people because they tell you stories about dead parents.”
Elias's voice dropped.
“Did you arrange my accident?”
Victor stared.
No denial.
Interesting.
Then he said, “Ask Thomas Vale what your father did to his wife.”
Clara went pale.
“What?”
Victor looked at her.
“You don't know?”
“Victor,” Elias warned.
But Victor continued.
“Thomas loves telling half a story.”
Clara stepped closer.
“What did Dominic do?”
Victor smiled sadly.
“Ask your father why your mother really died.”
Clara's face changed completely.
She turned toward Elias.
Then back toward Victor.
“You're lying.”
“Maybe.”
Victor walked away.
“Or maybe Dominic Baron wasn't the only man who kept children safe by burying the truth.”
Clara immediately called Thomas.
No answer.
Again.
Nothing.
Daniel checked the apartment feed.
“Thomas left twenty minutes ago.”
“Where?” Elias asked.
“No idea.”
Clara looked at Elias.
“He knew we were coming here.”
“Victor may have frightened him.”
“Or Victor told the truth.”
Elias heard the accusation hidden beneath it.
“You think my father hurt your mother?”
“I don't know what I think.”
“Good.”
Clara stared.
“That’s your response?”
“My response is we verify it.”
“Easy for you to say.”
“No.”
Elias looked at the burning study.
“My mother was murdered. My father hid a man from his daughter for years. My fiancée helped set me up. My oldest adviser may have arranged the crash that put me in this chair.”
His voice remained calm.
“I am running out of people whose version of history benefits me.”
Clara’s anger softened.
Elias continued.
“Truth doesn't become less true because we hate the person who tells it.”
She looked away.
Firefighters eventually controlled the blaze.
Dominic’s study was destroyed.
Almost.
Daniel found one fireproof cabinet intact beneath collapsed shelving.
Inside were three folders.
Most documents survived.
One folder was labeled:
VALE
Clara stared at it.
Elias handed it to her.
“You open it.”
Her fingers trembled.
Inside was a death certificate.
Miriam Vale.
Clara’s mother.
Cause of death: complications following injuries from a vehicle collision.
Date: 2010.
One year after Thomas allegedly died.
Clara whispered, “She died in 2012.”
Elias looked at her.
“What?”
“My mother died of cancer in 2012.”
Daniel frowned.
“Then this certificate is fake.”
Clara flipped through the papers.
Bank transfers.
Medical records.
A new identity.
Miriam had not died in 2012.
At least not under her real name.
A photograph showed her alive in 2014.
Clara dropped it.
“No.”
Another photo.
2016.
Then one from 2018.
Clara sat down hard.
“My mother is alive?”
Elias looked at the documents.
The last known address was in Vermont.
Daniel checked the file.
“No death record after 2018.”
Clara's eyes filled.
“She let me believe she was dead too.”
Elias understood immediately.
Thomas and Miriam had both disappeared.
Clara had lost her entire family not to death, but to a secret.
At the bottom of the folder was a handwritten note from Dominic:
They wanted Clara invisible. It was the only way I could keep all three alive. She will hate me for it. I accept that.
Clara covered her face.
Elias did not touch her.
Not yet.
Some grief needed room.
Then Daniel pulled another page free.
“Elias.”
“What?”
“This is recent.”
The document was dated three months ago.
A private security invoice.
Surveillance photographs.
Of Clara.
Someone had been watching her.
The client name had been partially redacted.
Only initials remained.
M.B.
Elias looked toward the front windows.
Margot Baron would have had those initials after the wedding.
But she was still Margot Bell.
M.B.
Clara whispered, “She was looking for me.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
Before Elias could answer, his phone received another alert.
A security camera captured Margot entering the burned east wing.
Alone.
She moved straight toward the fireproof cabinet.
Not searching.
Not wandering.
She knew exactly where it was.
Then she discovered it empty.
Her expression changed.
And she immediately made a call.
Daniel enhanced the audio.
Margot’s voice emerged through static.
“He has the Vale file.”
A pause.
Then:
“No. Victor doesn't know.”
Elias looked at Daniel.
Clara lowered her hands.
The person Margot was secretly working with was not Victor.
Someone else was inside the game.
Someone Victor did not control.
May you like
And apparently, that person had been watching Clara for months.
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