Chapter 3 - The Night the Ashford Estate Burned
The first bullet shattered the west window.
Glass exploded across the floor.
I pulled Penny down.
Titan threw his massive body over us.
The lights died.
Red emergency lighting filled the corridor.
I had always imagined real danger would be loud.
It wasn't.
Footsteps.
A weapon being checked.
Gabriel whispering, “Three coming north.”
Kendrick crouched beside us.
“Elena. Take Penny through the service corridor.”
“I don't know where it is.”
“Titan does.”
He touched the dog’s collar.
“Home.”
Titan immediately moved.
Penny clung to Kendrick.
“What about you?”
For the first time, I saw fear in the Mafia boss’s face.
Not fear for himself.
For her.
He kissed her forehead.
“Go.”
Titan led us through a concealed doorway.
Gunshots echoed behind us.
Penny covered her ears.
We reached a reinforced basement safe room.
Ten minutes later Gabriel stumbled inside, bleeding from his shoulder.
Then Kendrick appeared.
His tuxedo was torn.
Blood marked his cheek.
Penny ran into his arms.
“We leave,” he said.
By dawn, we were inside an isolated farmhouse in Connecticut that had once belonged to Kendrick’s mother.
There, we continued listening.
Isabelle's recordings revealed Richard’s plan.
He intended to provoke a war between Kendrick and rival organizations.
Once Kendrick died, Richard would become temporary guardian of Penny.
Through her trust, he could control billions.
Barrett would become his public partner.
Kendrick stared at the recorder.
“Why didn't you know?” I asked.
“I investigated Isabelle's death.”
“And?”
“Richard controlled the investigators I trusted.”
“He raised you.”
Kendrick nodded.
The betrayal wasn't business.
It was family.
Then we opened my locket.
Inside was a tiny strip of paper.
920.72
I laughed.
Kendrick looked at me like I had lost my mind.
“Biography of women.”
“What?”
“Dewey Decimal classification. My mother used library numbers as passwords.”
We connected her flash drive.
I entered 920.72.
Access granted.
Hundreds of files appeared.
Accounts.
Videos.
Photographs.
Payments.
Then a folder caught my attention.
PENNY.
Inside were medical records.
One line made Kendrick stop breathing.
Paternity discrepancy.
“She isn't mine?”
His voice cracked.
Just once.
I kept reading.
A second test appeared.
Then Isabelle’s letter.
Richard had deliberately altered the hospital records so Kendrick would eventually doubt Penny.
Isabelle had secretly performed an independent test.
Kendrick was Penny's biological father.
99.9 percent.
Kendrick closed his eyes.
“He wanted me to reject my own daughter.”
I thought about the little girl sleeping on the couch.
“Then don't give him what he wanted.”
We searched until we found another video.
Security footage from the night Isabelle died.
Barrett confronted her inside a parking garage.
“You're helping Richard murder him,” Isabelle said.
Then Richard appeared.
Calm.
Elegant.
“You should have stayed out of this.”
The recording ended.
We had proof.
And we copied it everywhere.
Journalists.
Lawyers.
Federal investigators.
Servers Richard couldn't reach.
But before we could act, Gabriel’s phone rang.
Barrett had taken Noah.
My brother.
He demanded me in exchange.
Kendrick blocked the door when I tried leaving.
“You're not going.”
“If Penny were taken, could anyone stop you?”
He said nothing.
Exactly.
At midnight, I entered an abandoned railway terminal.
Noah sat tied beneath a hanging light.
Barrett stood behind him.
Beside Barrett stood Richard Ashford.
Richard looked at me and smiled.
“You have Anna's eyes.”
My skin went cold.
“You knew my mother.”
“Knew her?”
He almost laughed.
“Elena, your mother worked for me.”
Then he looked at Kendrick.
“If Anna had done what she was told five years ago, both she and Isabelle would still be alive.”
My mother hadn't stumbled into their secret.
May you like
She had been part of Richard’s world.
And I was about to learn why she betrayed him.
