Chapter 8 - The Secret Beneath the White Roses
Elias did not go to the church.
Every part of him wanted to.
Evelyn.
Baby Rosalind.
Rose.
Vincent.
All potentially under attack.
But Rafael was already sending twelve men.
The greater danger might still be inside the estate.
“Lock every exit,” Elias ordered.
“Done.”
“Search every room.”
“Already underway.”
“No one leaves.”
“What about staff?”
“Anyone still here goes to the ballroom.”
Bernadette joined him in the corridor.
“You're staying?”
“Yes.”
“Good.”
He looked surprised.
“You expected me to argue?”
“Yes.”
“You're finally thinking instead of charging into gunfire. I refuse to discourage progress.”
Even now.
Bernadette could insult him like a disappointed aunt.
It helped.
They returned to Rosalind's room.
“Do you remember anyone who could imitate voices?”
Bernadette frowned.
“What sort of question is that?”
“Someone spoke over the intercom using Rose's voice.”
“Recording?”
“Possible.”
“If they had access to old therapy sessions, phone calls…”
Elias looked at Rosalind's notebooks.
Rose had been a psychologist.
Samuel could possess recordings.
The false Rose didn't need to be physically present.
Maybe the transmission originated from a device planted in the estate.
“Search for transmitters,” he told security.
He returned to the greenhouse.
Something still bothered him.
The buried box had contained one key.
Rosalind's room contained notebooks.
But her line to Evelyn had been:
Go where the white roses sleep.
Plural.
Not simply the greenhouse.
The white roses themselves.
Elias walked between the dead beds.
Three fresh flowers remained on one apparently dead branch.
Impossible, Bernadette had said earlier.
The greenhouse had been neglected.
The temperature too low.
Yet there they were.
Elias touched the soil.
Recently disturbed.
Not from their digging.
Another section.
“Bring me a trowel.”
Bernadette handed him one.
He dug around the base carefully.
Three inches down, he found plastic tubing.
Not old irrigation.
New.
Someone had been watering this plant.
“Who?”
Bernadette whispered.
Elias followed the tubing beneath the bench.
It ran through a small hole in the wall.
Into a hidden reservoir.
Automatic drip system.
Battery-powered.
Installed recently.
“Rosalind couldn't have installed this.”
“No.”
“Who knew these roses mattered?”
Bernadette's face tightened.
“Evelyn.”
“She only arrived six weeks ago.”
“She said she'd been searching.”
Elias looked around.
“Would she keep one bush alive?”
“Possibly.”
Then he noticed a small white tag tied around the branch.
He hadn't seen it during the storm.
Printed numbers:
11-03-13.
Date?
November 3, 2013.
Gabriel died November 3.
Thirteen years earlier.
Elias dug beneath that bush.
Nothing.
Then beneath the next.
Metal.
Another container.
Smaller.
Inside was an old flip phone wrapped in waterproof plastic.
The battery was dead.
Rafael's technicians revived it within fifteen minutes.
One saved draft message.
Never sent.
Written by Gabriel.
Elias read it alone.
E, if anything happens to me, don't believe the first story they give you. Vance has people inside every family. I found the records. Elena and the babies are safe for now. Vincent says he'll move them tomorrow. I don't know if I can trust him, but I don't have another choice. If you get this, find Rosalind. She knows where I put the key.
Elias stared at the words.
Gabriel had trusted Rosalind before Elias even married her.
How?
At the time Rosalind and Elias had only recently begun dating.
Perhaps Gabriel knew her better than Elias realized.
Then one line repeated in his mind.
Vincent says he'll move them tomorrow.
Vincent knew about the twins.
He had lied this morning.
He claimed he knew Elena was pregnant but not about twins.
Lie confirmed.
Why?
Protecting Rose?
Protecting himself?
Elias called Rafael.
“Status?”
“Church secured.”
“And?”
“Three attackers dead, two captured.”
“Vincent?”
“Alive.”
“Evelyn?”
“Alive.”
“The baby?”
“Safe.”
Elias exhaled for what felt like the first time in an hour.
“Rose?”
“Missing.”
“What?”
“She disappeared during the attack.”
“Taken?”
“Vincent says no.”
“Then where?”
“We don't know.”
“Bring them home.”
“Boss, I don't think—”
“Bring Evelyn and the baby. Vincent separately.”
“Understood.”
An estate guard approached.
“Mr. Falcone.”
“What?”
“We found the transmitter.”
“Where?”
The guard looked uncomfortable.
“Mrs. Quinn's bedroom.”
Elias slowly turned toward Bernadette.
She stared back.
“My bedroom?”
“Inside an air vent.”
Elias watched her face.
No fear.
Only offense.
“If you're about to accuse me,” Bernadette said, “at least have the decency to look embarrassed.”
“I didn't say anything.”
“You have your father's suspicious eyebrows.”
The device had been installed recently.
Probably while Bernadette worked.
Anyone on staff could have done it.
But it proved the false Rose had remote access to the estate.
Then another discovery.
A second transmitter.
In Elias's office.
A third.
The security room.
The estate had been compromised extensively.
For weeks.
Possibly months.
“Every electronic device is replaced,” Elias said.
“That's hundreds of thousands—”
“Did I ask the cost?”
“No.”
“Then replace them.”
By noon, Evelyn returned.
The baby slept in her arms.
Elias met them in the entry hall.
For a second neither spoke.
Then Evelyn said, “I'm sorry.”
“For what?”
“Leaving.”
“You followed Vincent because he knew my security phrase.”
“Yes.”
“Reasonable.”
“I should have trusted you.”
“You met me six weeks ago.”
“I've lived in your house six weeks.”
“That's still six weeks.”
Evelyn's eyes filled.
“Michael trusted you eventually.”
Elias looked at the baby.
“I wish he'd told me.”
“He was going to.”
“When?”
“The week he died.”
The weight of missed possibilities returned.
Vincent arrived separately, escorted by Rafael.
Elias didn't wait.
“You lied.”
Vincent looked exhausted.
“About what?”
“The twins.”
Vincent's face changed.
“Gabriel told you.”
“His phone did.”
Silence.
“You knew Michael and Rose existed.”
“Yes.”
“Why lie?”
“To protect Rose.”
“From me?”
“From whoever was listening.”
Elias almost struck him.
Instead:
“You've spent twenty years using that answer.”
“Because for twenty years you've had enemies in rooms you considered safe.”
“So tell me now.”
Vincent nodded.
“Gabriel came to me the day before he died. He knew Samuel had discovered Elena was pregnant. He asked me to move her.”
“Did you?”
“Yes.”
“You told me you couldn't find her.”
“I lied.”
“Where did you send her?”
“Massachusetts.”
“With both children?”
Vincent looked down.
“At first.”
“What happened?”
“Samuel intercepted the convoy.”
“How?”
“I don't know.”
“Rose was taken.”
“Yes.”
“Michael escaped?”
“One of my men got Elena and Michael out.”
“Why didn't you tell me?”
“Because the leak was inside your father's organization.”
“My father was already dead.”
“The organization remained.”
Elias's voice hardened.
“Who was leaking?”
“I suspected three people.”
“Names.”
“Thomas Avery. Dominic Serra.”
The third name made Vincent stop.
Elias noticed.
“Who?”
Vincent looked toward Bernadette.
“No.”
Elias stepped closer.
“Who?”
Vincent finally answered.
“Rosalind's father.”
Elias stared.
Rosalind rarely spoke about her father.
Henry Beaumont.
Diplomat.
Died before their marriage.
“What did he have to do with my family?”
“Everything.”
Vincent sat.
“Henry Beaumont helped create the Ashford Foundation with Samuel Vance.”
Bernadette whispered something under her breath.
Elias felt the room tilt.
“Rosalind knew?”
“Eventually.”
“When?”
“Shortly before your wedding.”
“That was when she met Rose.”
“Yes.”
“Why marry me?”
Vincent looked at him strangely.
“Because she loved you.”
“That doesn't answer the question.”
“It does.”
Vincent leaned forward.
“Rosalind discovered her father had helped destroy your brother. She could have run. Instead, she spent eleven years trying to repair what her family had done.”
Elias couldn't process it.
Rosalind.
Daughter of a man connected to Gabriel's death.
She had married Elias carrying that secret.
“She should have told me.”
“Yes.”
“But you told her not to.”
Vincent's silence confirmed it.
Elias laughed bitterly.
“Of course.”
“I believed knowledge would get you killed.”
“And secrets worked wonderfully.”
“No.”
Vincent looked older suddenly.
“They destroyed everyone.”
A guard entered holding an envelope.
“This was found beneath the front gate.”
Elias took it.
No stamp.
No writing except his name.
Inside was one photograph.
Rose.
Alive.
Standing in front of a burned mansion.
The original Vance estate.
Taken today.
On the back:
BRING GABRIEL'S RING ALONE. MIDNIGHT.
Evelyn touched her neck instinctively.
The ring was still there.
Then Elias noticed smaller handwriting beneath the first message.
Different pen.
Different pressure.
Almost hidden.
DON'T COME ALONE. THAT'S WHAT HE WANTS.
Signed:
R.
Two messages.
One photograph.
Two different people.
Someone was using Rose as bait.
May you like
And Rose herself had found a way to warn them.
---
