Chapter 4 - THE HOUSE BESIDE THE BLACK WATER
Claire tried to stand when I told her the boys were gone.
The heart monitor erupted in protest.
“You can’t leave this bed,” the nurse said.
Claire pulled the sensor from her finger.
“They took my nephews.”
“You nearly died tonight.”
“Then I have nothing left to lose.”
I wanted to stop her, but the determination in her face was the same expression Evelyn had worn whenever someone told her she was too sick to fight.
The police wanted us to delay.
The message had ordered us to arrive within ninety minutes, and the Bennett lake house was more than an hour away.
Detective Elena Ruiz fitted Claire with a transmitter beneath her sweater.
“We’ll follow at a distance,” she said. “Keep Charles talking. Do not attempt a rescue by yourselves.”
I agreed.
I had no intention of obeying.
Rain began halfway to the lake.
Claire sat beside me in the Bentley, a blanket around her shoulders and an IV port still taped to her arm.
“Why did Charles hide you?” I asked.
“He didn’t want proof that he had been unfaithful to Evelyn’s mother. Anna Bennett came from one of the oldest families in the state. Their marriage gave him social power and control of Bennett Pharmaceuticals.”
“Your mother worked there?”
“She was a laboratory assistant. He promised her a future, then accused her of stealing when she became pregnant. She lost everything.”
“And Evelyn found you?”
“Your wife hired a private investigator after she discovered an old photograph in Charles’s safe.”
Claire looked toward the dark highway.
“She came to my apartment alone. I thought she wanted to pay me to remain silent. Instead, she hugged me.”
Her voice broke.
“She said she had spent her entire life wishing for a sister.”
The lake house appeared through the rain twenty minutes later.
It was a massive stone property overlooking black water, surrounded by pine trees and high fencing.
The gate opened before we stopped.
Charles Bennett waited beneath the covered entrance.
At seventy-two, he still looked like the executive who had once terrified entire boardrooms. His silver hair was immaculate. His coat probably cost more than Claire had earned in a year.
“Where are my sons?” I demanded.
“Safe.”
“Show me.”
“Give me the key.”
Claire stepped from the car.
Charles’s expression changed when he saw how pale she was.
“You were supposed to remain at the hospital.”
“You were supposed to remain out of our lives,” she replied.
His face hardened.
“You have no place in this family.”
“I’m standing in my sister’s house, trying to save her children from their grandfather. I think I found my place.”
Charles’s hand tightened around his cane.
“Bring them inside.”
Two men appeared behind us.
They searched me, took my phone, and guided us into the library.
Lucas and Owen sat together on a leather couch. Owen ran toward me, but one of the men caught him.
“Don’t touch him!” I shouted.
“Daddy!” Lucas cried. “Grandpa said you don’t want us anymore.”
I lunged forward.
A guard struck me in the ribs.
Claire screamed.
Charles did not move.
“Enough,” he said. “No one needs to be hurt if Daniel makes the correct decision.”
A folder waited on the desk.
Inside were documents surrendering my authority over the twins’ trust, Evelyn’s Bennett shares, and temporary guardianship.
“You expect me to sign away my children?”
“I expect you to recognize your failures,” Charles said. “You abandon them for weeks at a time. They formed a stronger emotional bond with a stranger than with their own father.”
“She isn’t a stranger.”
“She is an opportunist.”
Claire’s face went white with anger.
“You poisoned me.”
Charles glanced toward her.
“I tried to make you leave.”
“You told Ruth to give me that pill.”
“I told Victor to frighten you. I did not instruct anyone to kill you.”
“Victor works for you.”
“Victor works for whoever benefits Victor.”
The answer unsettled him as soon as he spoke it.
A door opened behind us.
Victor Hale entered.
He wore a charcoal suit and a calm smile.
“Daniel,” he said. “You look terrible.”
I moved toward him, but the guard raised a weapon.
Victor picked up the guardianship documents.
“This could have been painless. You sign, Charles gets control of the Bennett shares, and I continue running Whitmore Global while you spend a few quiet years repairing your reputation.”
“You changed Evelyn’s medication.”
Victor smiled faintly.
“Grief makes people paranoid.”
“I heard her recordings.”
For the first time, his expression shifted.
Charles turned toward him.
“What recordings?”
Victor ignored him.
“Where is the deposit-box key?”
Claire touched the chain beneath her collar.
“You’ll never get it.”
Victor walked toward her.
“You entered Daniel’s home under false pretenses, manipulated two vulnerable children, and stole confidential documents. By tomorrow morning, the public will know you engineered this entire situation to gain access to their inheritance.”
“No one will believe you.”
“They believe people like me every day.”
Charles struck his cane against the floor.
“This was not our agreement.”
Victor finally faced him.
“Our agreement became inconvenient.”
A sound came from the second floor.
Three short beeps.
Lucas looked at me.
“The smoke thing,” he whispered.
I smelled it an instant later.
Burning wood.
Victor glanced toward one of the guards.
“Did you secure the archives?”
“Yes.”
Charles’s face turned gray.
“You started a fire?”
“The police are already too close. We need a tragedy, not a negotiation.”
Flames appeared beneath the library door.
The guard holding Owen released him to reach for a fire extinguisher.
Owen ran toward Claire.
I struck the other guard, grabbed Lucas, and pulled him behind the desk.
Smoke rolled across the ceiling.
Victor disappeared through a side exit.
Charles followed, shouting for his men.
Claire lifted Owen into her arms.
“Through the kitchen!” she yelled.
We ran.
A burning beam crashed behind us, separating me and Lucas from Claire and Owen.
“Claire!” I shouted.
“I have him!”
The heat became unbearable.
I broke a window with a chair and pushed Lucas through it onto the wet lawn. When I climbed after him, Detective Ruiz and two officers were racing from the trees.
“Where’s Owen?” she shouted.
I turned.
Claire had not come out.
The second floor erupted in flames.
Then I saw a small face behind an upstairs window.
Owen.
He pounded against the glass.
“Daddy!”
Claire appeared behind him, pulling at a door that would not open.
The roof above them groaned.
Detective Ruiz grabbed my arm.
“You can’t go back in!”
I tore free.
May you like
Inside the burning house, Claire wrapped her body around my son as the ceiling began to collapse.
And I ran straight into the fire.
