Chapter 19 - The Last Hallucination
Elena refused to leave the NICU.
Police searched the hospital twice.
Nothing.
No Victoria.
No woman matching her description.
The card had no usable fingerprints.
Marcus wanted to move Caroline.
Elena refused.
“That’s what she wants.”
“How do you know?”
“I don’t.”
That was the unbearable part.
Victoria had trained Elena to suspect every decision.
Move.
Stay.
Run.
Hide.
Trust.
Doubt.
Every option contained a shadow.
Dr. Reyes arrived that afternoon.
She examined Elena privately.
“No NRX-41 in your blood.”
“So the hallucinations should be gone.”
“Acute drug effects, yes.”
Elena stared.
“But?”
“Trauma doesn’t disappear with a blood test.”
Elena looked away.
“So I may still see things.”
“You may experience flashbacks.”
“Hallucinations?”
“It’s possible.”
Elena’s throat tightened.
“For how long?”
“No one can tell you.”
That answer hurt.
But it was honest.
Elena preferred frightening truth now.
Reyes touched her hand.
“The difference is that you know what happened.”
Elena looked at her.
“You have tools now.”
“Verify.”
“Yes.”
“Don’t react before I verify.”
“Yes.”
“Trust evidence.”
“And people you choose.”
That last part was harder.
Late that night, Marcus slept beside Caroline’s bassinet.
Elena sat near the window.
Rain tapped against the glass.
At 2:11 a.m., jasmine perfume filled the room.
Elena went rigid.
She looked toward the door.
Victoria stood there.
Crimson dress.
White gloves.
Perfect hair.
Smiling.
“Elena.”
Elena did not move.
Victoria stepped closer.
“Did you miss me?”
Elena’s heart raced.
She checked Marcus.
Sleeping.
She pressed the nurse call button.
No response.
Victoria continued.
“You know what happens now.”
Elena looked at the reflection in the window.
Victoria appeared there too.
That suggested real.
But projections could reflect.
Elena picked up her phone.
Opened the camera.
Pointed it toward Victoria.
The screen showed an empty doorway.
Hallucination.
Elena exhaled.
“You’re not real.”
Victoria smiled.
“Are you sure?”
Elena closed her eyes.
Opened them.
Empty doorway.
No Victoria.
Jasmine remained.
Elena checked the flower arrangement.
A nurse had brought lilies earlier.
Not jasmine.
The smell faded.
Flashback.
Real fear.
False woman.
Elena almost laughed.
“I know you now.”
A voice came from behind her.
“Do you?”
Elena spun.
Victoria stood inches away.
Real.
She grabbed Elena’s throat.
Elena fought.
Marcus woke.
Victoria shoved Elena into him and grabbed the bassinet.
Marcus tackled her.
The bassinet rolled.
Elena caught it before it struck the wall.
Caroline cried.
Marcus and Victoria crashed against a cabinet.
Victoria reached inside her coat.
Knife.
Elena screamed.
“Marcus!”
He caught her wrist.
The blade cut his palm.
Police officers stationed outside rushed in.
Victoria kicked Marcus away and ran toward the service exit.
Dana appeared.
“Stop!”
Victoria ran.
Dana followed.
Marcus grabbed Elena.
“Stay with Caroline.”
This time Elena listened.
Police chased Victoria through the hospital.
She escaped through a laundry corridor.
But cameras captured her.
Real cameras.
Unaltered.
Verified.
For the first time, Elena did not need to question what she saw.
Victoria had been there.
Dana returned twenty minutes later.
“She got out.”
Marcus cursed.
Elena looked at the card.
One last lesson.
“No.”
“What?”
“This wasn’t the last lesson.”
Marcus looked confused.
“It’s the last place.”
Elena stood.
“What place?”
“The estate.”
Victoria had returned to Caroline’s room not only to hurt them.
She wanted them frightened.
Running.
Reacting.
“She wants us back at Ashcroft Manor.”
Marcus shook his head.
“Then we don’t go.”
Elena thought of Edward’s archive.
Caroline’s diary.
The greenhouse.
The hidden rooms.
The house contained Victoria’s history.
And perhaps something else.
“She needs something there.”
Caleb checked the offline archive remotely.
One file had never been opened.
MASTER.
Password protected.
The password hint.
CAROLINE’S LAST WORD.
Marcus knew it.
His mother’s final voicemail.
The one he never answered.
Years later, he had listened.
Her last word.
“Home.”
Caleb entered the password.
The file opened.
One video.
Edward Ashcroft.
Recorded three months before his death.
He sat inside his office looking exhausted.
“If Victoria sees this, I am already dead or she has found the archive.”
Marcus stopped breathing.
Edward continued.
“I believe Victoria was responsible for Caroline’s death.”
No one spoke.
“I cannot prove murder.”
“But I can prove manipulation, drugging, fraud, surveillance, and coercion.”
Documents appeared.
Then Edward said.
“There is one original ledger.”
A financial ledger documenting every payment.
Every doctor.
Every security contractor.
Every hidden account.
“It is beneath the stone floor of the old chapel.”
Marcus looked at Elena.
The chapel stood on the Ashcroft estate.
Victoria had no reason to chase them.
She was going for the ledger.
Dana mobilized officers.
Elena stayed with Caroline.
For exactly seven minutes.
Then Caleb called.
Victoria had triggered the estate fire alarm.
The chapel cameras went dark.
Marcus and Dana were already en route.
Elena looked at her daughter.
She did not want to go.
She did not need to prove bravery.
Then another call arrived.
Marcus.
“Elena.”
His voice sounded strange.
“What?”
“We found Victoria.”
A pause.
“She has the ledger.”
“Are you okay?”
“Yes.”
“Then arrest her.”
Another pause.
“Elena, she says she’ll only surrender it to you.”
Elena closed her eyes.
Of course.
One final stage.
One final audience.
Two hours later, Elena stood outside the Ashcroft chapel with Dana beside her.
Caroline remained at the hospital under armed protection.
Marcus waited near the chapel doors.
Inside, Victoria stood beneath the stained-glass window.
Crimson dress.
The real one this time.
A ledger in one hand.
A lighter in the other.
“You came.”
Elena walked inside.
“Yes.”
Victoria smiled.
“You finally learned.”
“What?”
“To stop hiding behind Marcus.”
“I was never hiding.”
“You were always weak.”
Elena looked at the lighter.
“Then why did you need drugs?”
Victoria’s smile vanished.
Elena continued.
“If I were weak, you wouldn’t have needed speakers.”
“You wouldn’t have needed cameras.”
“You wouldn’t have needed fake videos.”
“You wouldn’t have needed Kessler.”
Victoria’s fingers tightened around the ledger.
“You needed an entire machine just to make me doubt myself.”
Elena stepped closer.
“That doesn’t make me weak.”
“It makes you afraid of me.”
“No.”
Elena looked at her.
“It makes you afraid of me.”
Victoria flicked the lighter.
Flame.
Dana raised her weapon.
“Victoria.”
“One step and this burns.”
Elena kept moving.
“You won’t.”
Victoria laughed.
“Try me.”
“You spent twenty years protecting your secrets.”
Elena stopped six feet away.
“You won’t burn the only record that proves how powerful you think you were.”
Victoria’s eyes changed.
Elena had found the wound.
Ego.
Not fear.
Not money.
Ego.
“You want people to know what you did.”
Victoria whispered.
“You know nothing.”
“I know you need everyone to believe you controlled us.”
Elena stepped closer.
“Caroline.”
“Edward.”
“Marcus.”
“Me.”
“You didn’t just want us gone.”
“You wanted us defeated.”
Victoria’s hand trembled.
Elena continued.
“That’s why you kept recordings.”
“That’s why you kept profiles.”
“That’s why you left notes.”
“You wanted credit.”
“Stop.”
“You wanted someone to understand how clever you were.”
“Stop.”
“And now no one will.”
Victoria screamed and lunged.
The lighter fell.
Dana moved.
Marcus moved.
Elena stepped aside.
Victoria crashed onto the chapel floor.
The ledger slid across the stone.
Dana cuffed her.
This time three cameras recorded everything.
Two officers witnessed it.
The ledger remained intact.
Victoria looked up at Elena.
Hatred had finally replaced elegance.
“You think this ends because you beat me?”
Elena crouched.
“No.”
Victoria smiled.
“Then you understand.”
Elena shook her head.
“It ends because I don’t need you to admit what you did.”
Victoria’s smile disappeared.
Elena stood.
Behind her, sunlight entered through the stained glass.
For the first time since entering Ashcroft Manor, Elena saw the crimson color of the windows and felt nothing.
No fear.
May you like
No confusion.
Just glass.
