Chapter 8 - SOMEONE CAME BACK “ELENA, GET OUT NOW.”
Julian started the car.
“I’m upstairs.”
“Use the east staircase.”
“I can’t.”
“Why?”
Silence.
Then Elena whispered:
“Someone’s coming.”
The call disconnected.
Julian drove faster than he ever had.
He called police while speeding toward Blackwood Manor.
Rain hammered the windshield.
Every traffic light felt like an enemy.
Ten minutes later, the mansion appeared beyond the trees.
The front door was open.
“Elena!”
Julian ran inside.
No answer.
The electricity was off.
He activated his phone flashlight.
“Elena!”
A sound came from upstairs.
He moved toward it.
Then someone emerged from the corridor.
Julian raised his fists.
“Don’t move!”
“Mr. Mercer!”
Elena.
She rushed toward him.
Julian exhaled.
“Are you hurt?”
“No.”
“Who’s inside?”
“I don’t know.”
Police sirens approached outside.
Elena pointed toward the drawing room.
“They went behind the wall.”
Officers entered moments later.
Together they searched the hidden room.
Empty.
But several boxes were missing.
The surveillance camera had been ripped from its mount.
Whoever entered knew exactly what they wanted.
Officer Reeves examined muddy footprints.
“They used the old servant entrance.”
Julian looked around.
“Charles?”
“Maybe.”
But Julian didn’t believe it.
His uncle had no reason to steal evidence after agreeing to cooperate.
Then Elena noticed something.
“Sir.”
She pointed toward the floor.
A small object lay beneath the shelf.
An earring.
Diamond.
Julian recognized it.
Evelyn’s.
Impossible.
She was in custody.
Reeves picked it up carefully.
“Could have been here already.”
Julian nodded.
But Elena looked uncertain.
“What?”
Julian asked.
“I cleaned this room after investigators finished yesterday.”
“You came in here?”
“Yes.”
“That wasn’t there?”
“No.”
Everyone fell silent.
Someone had placed Evelyn’s earring there deliberately.
Either Evelyn had somehow returned—
or someone wanted Julian to believe she had.
The investigation expanded.
Within forty-eight hours, police identified the intruder.
Not Charles.
Not Evelyn.
A private investigator named Marcus Vale.
He had worked for Evelyn for almost two years.
When arrested, Vale admitted retrieving documents on instructions he had received weeks earlier.
A contingency plan.
If Evelyn were exposed, certain files were to disappear.
But one detail changed everything.
“Who were you protecting?” Julian asked during a supervised interview.
Vale smiled.
“Not Mrs. Mercer.”
Julian stared.
“Then who?”
Vale leaned back.
“You still think your wife started this.”
“She locked my son inside a wall.”
“Yes.”
“That makes her responsible.”
“For Toby?”
Vale nodded.
“Absolutely.”
He leaned closer.
“But the surveillance operation?”
His smile vanished.
“That started before Evelyn ever met you.”
Julian thought of his father.
“Charles?”
Vale shook his head.
“Older.”
Julian’s stomach tightened.
“My father?”
Vale didn’t answer.
Instead, he said something stranger.
“Ask yourself why your father left Toby controlling interest.”
“Toby wasn’t born when my father died.”
“Exactly.”
Julian froze.
That was impossible.
His father’s trust had been amended after his death through provisions triggered by future descendants.
But suddenly Julian wondered who had written those provisions.
And why.
Vale stood as officers prepared to remove him.
Before leaving, he turned.
“One more thing.”
Julian waited.
“The most important thing in that room wasn’t a document.”
“What was it?”
May you like
Vale smiled faintly.
“A key.”
