Chapter 3 - The Locked Conservatory
The scream lasted only three seconds.
It was muffled.
Distant.
But it was unmistakably human.
Gabriel looked toward the north-facing windows.
Dr. Vale stepped backward.
Helena caught his arm.
"Simon, don't."
Gabriel handed Izzy to Marta.
"Take her somewhere safe."
Izzy clung to his sleeve.
"Daddy?"
He knelt.
"I'm right here."
"Please don't let Grandma take me."
The room went painfully quiet.
Gabriel touched her cheek.
"She won't."
He turned to Marta.
"Lock the nursery suite."
Marta nodded.
"And call my attorney, Daniel Pierce."
"Yes, sir."
"Tell him to come immediately."
Helena moved toward the doorway.
"This is ridiculous."
Gabriel blocked her path.
"You're staying here."
"I am your mother."
"And that little girl is my daughter."
His voice hardened.
"Whatever happens next is because of what you've done."
Marta carried Izzy upstairs.
Gabriel watched until they disappeared.
Then he turned to Dr. Vale.
"What was that scream?"
The physician swallowed.
"I didn't hear anything."
Gabriel walked toward him.
"You're lying."
"Gabriel, your mother has explained—"
"Don't say another word about my mother."
The doctor's mouth closed.
Gabriel pointed toward the window.
"Someone is inside that building."
Vale lowered his eyes.
Gabriel's heart pounded.
"Is it Olivia?"
The doctor's silence answered him.
Gabriel turned and ran.
He crossed the study, pushed through the service corridor, and raced down the narrow staircase leading into the gardens.
Behind him, Helena shouted his name.
He didn't stop.
Outside, cold rain had begun falling.
The conservatory stood beyond a row of towering cypress trees.
Its brick foundation was almost hidden beneath climbing ivy.
Gabriel reached the front entrance.
A heavy chain secured the doors.
He pulled once.
Twice.
Nothing.
He searched for a key beneath the flowerpots.
There was none.
Then he remembered the old maintenance shed.
He sprinted across the wet grass.
Inside, he found a pair of bolt cutters hanging beside a shovel.
He grabbed them and ran back.
"Gabriel!"
Helena's voice came from the path.
"Stop right now!"
Gabriel placed the cutters around the chain.
Metal snapped.
He shoved open the doors.
The smell struck him first.
Disinfectant.
Stale air.
And something bitter he couldn't identify.
The once-beautiful conservatory had been converted into a maze of curtained rooms.
Medical equipment stood beside old garden furniture.
A portable generator hummed against the wall.
There were locked cabinets, a narrow hospital bed, and several prescription bottles.
Gabriel moved forward.
"Olivia?"
Silence.
He pushed aside a curtain.
An empty bed.
Another curtain.
A small table holding water and medication.
Then he heard breathing.
He turned.
Behind a third curtain lay a woman.
Her hair was long and dark.
Her body looked frighteningly thin beneath the white blanket.
An IV line ran into her arm.
Gabriel stopped.
For one terrible moment, he couldn't move.
Six years.
He had spent six years imagining Olivia married to someone else.
He had pictured her living happily in another country.
Sometimes he had dreamed she would appear at his office with a suitcase and tell him everything had been a mistake.
He had never imagined this.
"Olivia?"
The woman stirred.
Her eyelids fluttered.
He rushed to the bed.
"Olivia, it's me."
Her eyes opened.
Green.
The same unmistakable green as Izzy's.
Gabriel fell to his knees.
"Oh, God."
He took her hand.
It felt cold.
"Olivia."
She stared at him.
For several seconds, she seemed unable to understand what she was seeing.
Then tears slipped down her temples.
"Gabriel?"
His name came out as a whisper.
"I'm here."
He brought her hand to his lips.
"I'm here, sweetheart."
She tried to lift her head.
He gently supported her.
"Don't move."
Her eyes filled with terror.
"Isabelle."
Gabriel nodded rapidly.
"She's safe."
Olivia gripped his hand with surprising strength.
"She found you?"
"Yes."
A broken sound escaped her throat.
"Thank God."
Gabriel kissed her fingers.
"I didn't know."
She began crying.
"I tried."
"I know."
"I tried to tell you."
"I know."
He pressed his forehead against hers.
"I'm so sorry."
Olivia shook her head.
"No."
She struggled to speak.
"Listen to me."
Gabriel pulled back.
"What?"
"Your mother."
Her breathing became uneven.
"She didn't just take our daughter."
Gabriel felt his stomach tighten.
"What did she do?"
Olivia looked toward the entrance.
"She took everything."
Footsteps sounded behind him.
Dr. Vale entered with Helena.
The physician carried a small black medical case.
Gabriel rose immediately.
"Stay away from her."
Vale lifted his hands.
"She needs treatment."
"She's been imprisoned here."
"Gabriel, the situation is complicated."
"She's lying in a locked building."
The doctor looked toward Helena.
Gabriel followed his gaze.
His mother stood in the doorway without a trace of remorse.
"She was ill," Helena said.
Gabriel stared at her.
"You told me she ran away."
"She was unstable."
Olivia made a faint sound.
"No."
Helena ignored her.
"She became obsessed with you."
Gabriel looked at the hospital bed.
Then back at his mother.
"Are you listening to yourself?"
Helena stepped closer.
"I protected you."
"From what?"
"From a woman who wanted your money."
Olivia began coughing.
Gabriel returned to her side.
"Don't listen to her."
He took out his phone.
"I'm calling an ambulance."
Helena's expression changed.
"That isn't necessary."
Gabriel dialed anyway.
He gave the emergency dispatcher the estate's address and explained that an adult woman appeared to have been held in a locked outbuilding while receiving medical treatment of uncertain necessity.
The dispatcher told him help was coming.
Dr. Vale moved toward the bed.
"She may experience complications if her medication is interrupted."
Gabriel blocked him.
"Then tell the paramedics exactly what she's been taking."
Vale hesitated.
Gabriel noticed the hesitation.
"What is in those bottles?"
The doctor said nothing.
Gabriel picked one up.
The label bore Olivia's name.
It also listed a drug he didn't recognize.
He photographed the bottle.
Then another.
And another.
Olivia tugged weakly at his sleeve.
"Gabriel."
He leaned close.
"What is it?"
She looked toward the floor beneath the bed.
"The blue box."
Gabriel followed her gaze.
A small metal storage box sat partly concealed behind the frame.
He reached for it.
Helena took a sharp breath.
"Leave that alone."
Gabriel pulled it out.
The box had a combination lock.
He looked at Olivia.
"Do you know the code?"
She nodded.
"Isabelle's birthday."
His fingers moved over the dial.
Zero-four.
One-seven.
The final two digits of the year Izzy was born.
The lock clicked.
Inside were photographs, folded papers, and a small digital recorder.
Gabriel picked up a photograph.
It showed Olivia holding a newborn baby.
Izzy.
His daughter was wrapped in a yellow hospital blanket.
Olivia looked exhausted but radiant.
Gabriel turned the photo over.
Three words were written on the back.
For her daddy.
He closed his eyes.
Then he found a sealed envelope addressed to him.
The handwriting was unmistakably Olivia's.
His hands trembled as he opened it.
Inside was a single page.
Gabriel, if you are reading this, it means I could not make them stop.
Please find our daughter.
And whatever your mother tells you, remember this: I did not leave you.
Gabriel stared at the final sentence.
Below Olivia's signature was another line.
Your father knew.
Gabriel stopped breathing.
His father had died nine years earlier.
Three years before Izzy's birth.
He looked at the paper again.
Something was wrong.
Then he noticed that the sentence had been added in a different color of ink.
He examined the back of the page.
There were indentations from writing that had once rested on top of it.
Olivia grabbed his wrist.
"She made me write that."
Gabriel looked at her.
"Who?"
Olivia turned toward Helena.
"Your mother made me change the letter."
Outside, sirens began approaching the mansion.
Olivia's next words were barely audible.
"But the real letter is still hidden."
Gabriel leaned closer.
"Where?"
Her eyes moved toward the ceiling.
May you like
"In the room where your daughter was born."
And before he could ask another question, Olivia lost consciousness.
