Chapter 18 - The House Goes Dark
Emergency lights failed too.
That was how we knew the blackout was deliberate.
Blackwood plunged into complete darkness.
Police shouted.
Flashlights snapped on.
Detective Chen ordered everyone toward the main hall.
Rachel refused.
"Thomas wants the ledger."
"So do twenty armed officers," Chen said.
"He knows this house better."
"So does Bianca," I said.
My sister had memorized the tunnels during the years she supplied Evelyn.
For once, that terrible knowledge became useful.
We split into protected groups.
Evelyn stayed beside me despite my objections.
"I'm done being hidden."
I understood.
We moved through the underground corridor carrying copies of the ledger pages.
The originals had already been sealed in evidence containers.
Or so Thomas believed.
A voice came through the darkness.
"Daniel."
My father's.
Close.
Evelyn gripped my arm.
Chen raised her weapon.
"Thomas Mercer!
Show yourself."
He laughed softly somewhere beyond the wall.
"You brought Laura Chen into my house so often I began to think she was family."
Chen remained calm.
"Come out."
"Did Gideon teach you nothing?
Visible positions are weak positions."
Bianca whispered, "Ventilation shaft."
She pointed upward.
His voice traveled through old ducts.
We continued.
Then a door slammed behind us.
Metal dropped.
The corridor divided.
Chen and two officers were cut off.
Evelyn, Bianca, Rachel, Mom, and I remained on the other side.
Exactly the people Thomas wanted.
"He planned this," Bianca said.
"Obviously," Mom replied.
We reached the old wine cellar.
Thomas stood beneath a battery lantern.
Two armed men beside him.
He looked pale from his gunshot wound.
But alive.
Entirely alive.
"Family," he said.
Rachel laughed.
"You never understood the word."
Thomas looked at her.
"I wondered when you'd appear."
"You spent years searching."
"Not hard enough."
His gaze moved to the evidence case Bianca carried.
"Ledger."
"Copies," she said.
His expression tightened.
"You always were impulsive."
"You always were a monster."
Pain flickered.
"I loved you."
"No.
You loved owning me."
Thomas looked toward Mom.
"Elena?"
She stood straight.
"I should have exposed you thirty years ago."
"Maybe."
Then Evelyn.
He could barely meet her eyes.
"I cannot undo what happened."
"No."
"I did keep you alive."
Evelyn's voice remained calm.
"You don't get credit for maintaining the prison you chose not to open."
Thomas looked away.
Finally me.
"Daniel.
Give me the pages."
"No."
"If those names go public, people will die."
"People already died protecting them."
"More."
"Then help expose the people threatening them."
"You still believe systems can clean themselves."
"I believe secrets make criminals stronger."
He smiled sadly.
"Samuel Hart taught you without ever meeting you."
"Good."
One of Thomas's men shifted.
Rachel noticed.
"Thomas, your hired help is nervous."
"They should be."
"Why?"
She smiled.
"Because Gideon paid them first."
The man on Thomas's right raised his gun.
Everything exploded.
Bianca shoved Mom down.
I pulled Evelyn behind a stone pillar.
Gunshots shattered bottles.
Thomas dove sideways.
Rachel disappeared into the dark.
One attacker fell.
The other ran.
Then Gideon stepped from the side passage.
No handcuffs.
No police escort.
He had escaped too.
Or been released.
At this point, corruption had become infrastructure.
Thomas stared.
"You."
Gideon smiled.
"Did you miss me?"
Two old men.
Forty years of war.
Every person I loved trapped between them.
Gideon pointed a gun at Bianca.
Thomas moved immediately.
"Not her."
Gideon's expression changed.
"My daughter."
"Mine."
"By theft."
"By raising her."
"You turned her against me."
"She did that herself."
Bianca stood.
"Both of you shut up."
The command stunned them.
She stepped forward.
"I am not the prize at the end of your war."
Gideon's hand trembled.
"Bianca—"
"No."
She looked at Thomas.
"And you.
You don't get to claim me because you raised me while using me."
Thomas's face cracked.
For the first time I saw genuine grief.
"You're right."
Bianca almost faltered.
Then Gideon fired.
Thomas moved in front of her.
The bullet struck him.
He fell.
Bianca screamed.
Police breached the cellar seconds later.
Chen tackled Gideon as officers opened fire.
One bullet struck his leg.
He went down.
I knelt beside Thomas.
Blood spread across his chest.
His breathing was shallow.
"Daniel."
"I'm here."
He smiled weakly.
"Always love over blood."
"Stop talking."
"I was wrong."
Bianca knelt beside him.
"Dad."
The word escaped before she could stop it.
Thomas looked at her.
He cried.
"I am sorry."
She held his hand.
"You don't get forgiveness because you're dying."
"I know."
"Don't leave me with that."
"I know."
Sirens echoed.
Medics rushed in.
Thomas was carried away alive.
Gideon too.
The old war had finally ended not with victory.
With handcuffs and blood.
But Rachel stood beside the opened ledger chamber staring at something.
"What?" I asked.
She pointed.
A section of wall had moved during the shooting.
Behind it was another compartment.
Smaller.
Inside sat a stack of envelopes.
Each labeled with a woman's name.
One read EVELYN HART.
Another ELENA MERCER.
Another BIANCA MERCER.
And one:
May you like
DANIEL MERCER.
Our father had written final letters to each of us.
