Chapter 10 - Midnight at Blackwood
At 11:43 p.m., Bianca and I entered Blackwood House through the north door.
Police knew.
Gideon almost certainly knew they knew.
The entire situation had become a contest in which everyone pretended the other side could not see the obvious.
Bianca carried the ledger.
For the first time, I saw the book Evelyn had found on our wedding day.
Black leather.
No title.
Pages filled with coded names, dates, initials, companies, and account numbers.
It looked almost disappointingly ordinary.
Three years of suffering hidden inside a book that could fit beneath one arm.
"Where did you keep it?" I asked.
"Mom's grave."
I stopped.
"What?"
"Inside the mausoleum.
Behind the plaque."
"You hid evidence in our mother's fake grave."
"It seemed appropriate."
Under different circumstances I might have laughed.
Tonight I couldn't.
Detective Chen's tactical team remained outside the estate perimeter.
Gideon's message had warned that if police entered the house before we reached the bridal suite, Evelyn would die.
We did not know whether that threat was real.
We acted as if it was.
Bianca and I climbed the staircase.
The house was dark.
At the bridal suite door, we found a lantern on the floor.
Beside it lay a note.
OPEN THE PANEL.
Bianca stared at the hidden hatch.
"I put her down there."
"Yes."
"I told myself every day I'd get her out tomorrow."
I looked at my sister.
"Then help me get her out tonight."
She nodded.
We opened the panel.
The stairway below disappeared into darkness.
We descended.
For the first time, I entered Evelyn's prison knowing what it was.
The mattress had been removed by police.
Evidence markers remained.
Scratches covered one wall.
Dates.
Thousands of lines.
I found my name.
DANIEL.
Written again and again.
Sometimes beside a date.
Sometimes alone.
I touched the wall.
Bianca looked away.
"She asked about you constantly."
"You told her I was moving on."
Bianca went still.
"She told you?"
"Yes."
"I thought if she believed that, she'd stop trying to escape."
I turned.
"What?"
"Gideon's people were still watching the house."
"You broke her hope to make her easier to control."
"I was terrified."
"That doesn't make it less cruel."
"I know."
For once, she did not use the word as defense.
We continued east.
The steel door stood open.
Beyond it, the tunnel sloped downward.
Fresh battery lights had been placed along the floor.
A speaker hidden somewhere crackled.
Gideon's voice.
"Bianca."
She froze.
He sounded almost gentle.
"I have wanted to speak your name for thirty-eight years."
She whispered, "You don't know me."
"Oh, I know more than you think."
"Where is Evelyn?" I shouted.
"Keep walking."
We did.
The tunnel widened into an old underground storage room.
Evelyn sat tied to a wooden chair.
Alive.
A man stood behind her.
Not Gideon.
Younger.
Forties.
He held a gun.
Bianca gripped the ledger.
"Let her go."
The man smiled.
"Put the book on the table."
I looked around.
One doorway.
No Gideon.
"Where is he?"
"Close."
Evelyn looked at me.
Her mouth was taped.
Her eyes told me not to do something.
I didn't know what.
Bianca walked toward the table.
"Once you have the ledger, she leaves."
The gunman nodded.
"Of course."
"No."
Bianca stopped.
The gunman frowned.
She held up the ledger.
"You don't want this."
"Put it down."
"You want the pages that were removed."
My eyes snapped toward her.
The gunman's expression changed.
Bianca smiled faintly.
"Marcus never told Gideon, did he?"
"Bianca," I said.
She ignored me.
"The original ledger was incomplete when Evelyn found it.
Thomas removed seventeen pages before he died."
The speaker crackled.
Gideon's voice lost its warmth.
"Where are they?"
Bianca looked toward the darkness.
"Let Evelyn go."
"Where are the pages?"
"Where's Caroline?"
Silence.
My pulse jumped.
Aunt Caroline.
Bianca had been holding another secret.
"I asked where my aunt is."
Gideon answered.
"Alive."
I stared.
Bianca had tears in her eyes.
"Prove it."
A second doorway opened.
An elderly woman was pushed into the room.
Thin.
Gray-haired.
But I recognized her.
Caroline Mercer.
My father's sister.
She had been missing for twenty-seven years.
She looked at me.
"Daniel?"
My knees weakened.
The gunman behind Evelyn shifted attention toward Caroline.
Only for a second.
Evelyn moved.
She kicked backward.
The chair slammed into his knees.
The gun fired into the ceiling.
I ran.
Bianca threw the ledger.
Pages exploded across the floor.
Caroline screamed.
I hit the gunman shoulder-first.
The weapon skidded away.
Evelyn fell sideways, still tied.
Bianca rushed toward her.
Another man emerged from the tunnel.
Gideon.
For the first time, I saw him clearly.
Seventy.
Tall.
Silver-haired.
Eyes fixed not on me.
On Bianca.
"My daughter."
Bianca stood slowly.
"I'm not your daughter."
His expression softened.
"Blood says otherwise."
She raised the gun she had picked up from the floor.
"Blood doesn't get to decide family."
Gideon stopped.
Somewhere above us, explosions of sound echoed through the tunnel.
Police entering.
He smiled.
"You brought them."
"I did," I said.
"No.
I mean her."
He looked past me.
My mother stepped through the tunnel behind Detective Chen.
Mom held no weapon.
Only a small black device.
Gideon's smile vanished.
"Elena."
She looked at him.
"It's over."
He laughed.
"It was never about the ledger."
Mom lifted the device.
"I know."
Gideon's face changed.
I realized he recognized it.
"What is that?" I asked.
May you like
Mom's answer was simple.
"The archive."
