Chapter 9 - The Siege
Marcus contacted the estate security team as we ran toward the vehicle.
No one answered.
The mansion’s internal system had gone offline twelve seconds before Mateo called. Cameras, alarms, electronic locks, and communications had all been disabled by a master override.
Victor Dane’s credential had been revoked.
Only Samuel’s stolen access protocols could have done it.
We were nearly four hours away.
Evelyn called state police while Marcus attempted to reach the backup team stationed beyond the estate perimeter.
Rosa sat beside me, gripping Mateo’s unanswered phone in both hands.
“Call again,” I said.
“I have.”
“Again.”
The call went straight to voicemail.
Images filled my mind.
Daniela protecting Martina.
Mateo standing in front of them.
Patricia entering the library with that cold smile.
I had spent my life building walls, gates, and systems to protect my family.
Samuel knew every weakness because I had trusted him to help design them.
“The safe room has an independent lock,” Marcus said.
“Patricia knows about it.”
“She knows the room exists. She may not know the secondary code.”
“Daniela does.”
Rosa looked at me.
“Would she open it if Patricia threatened Mateo?”
Yes.
My daughter would sacrifice safety to protect someone else.
Just like her mother.
The first backup guard reached the estate twenty minutes later.
He found the front gate open and two security officers unconscious inside the control building. Both had been drugged.
The mansion appeared empty.
No sign of Patricia.
No sign of Nolan.
No sign of the children.
Then the guard found blood in the library.
Rosa stopped breathing.
“Whose?”
“They don’t know.”
I called the guard directly.
“Describe the scene.”
“Broken lamp near the hidden wall. Blood on the carpet. Safe-room door open.”
“Any shell casings?”
“No.”
“Signs of forced removal?”
“Several.”
A black van had been recorded leaving a nearby traffic camera seventeen minutes after the system failed.
It traveled south.
Marcus traced the plate.
Stolen.
Evelyn issued an alert, but Samuel had planned too carefully to use major highways.
Then my phone rang from an unknown number.
Patricia appeared on the screen through a video call.
She stood inside a dim room.
Behind her, Daniela and Martina sat tied to chairs.
Mateo lay on the floor, blood running from his forehead.
Rosa made a broken sound.
“Let me speak to him,” she said.
Patricia smiled.
“He’s alive.”
“You touch him again—”
“You’ll do what, Rosa? Clean my house angrily?”
I took the phone.
“What do you want?”
“The original invoice. Elena’s letter. Bell’s recorded statement. Every copy of the surveillance footage.”
“You know I can’t erase government evidence.”
“Then convince Agent Cross to lose it.”
“She won’t.”
“Then your daughters suffer because you chose a stranger over them.”
Rosa flinched.
Patricia wanted me to blame her.
Even now, she was trying to separate us.
“Where is Elena?” I asked.
Patricia’s smile changed.
“So you found Ashcroft.”
“Is she alive?”
“She was the last time I saw her.”
“Where?”
“You’ll receive instructions.”
“Let the children go.”
“No.”
“They are not part of your war.”
“They are the only reason you ever surrender.”
Daniela lifted her head.
“Dad, don’t give her anything.”
Patricia struck her.
My vision went white.
Martina screamed.
I forced myself not to react.
Patricia wanted rage.
Rage made people careless.
“You just made a mistake,” I said.
She laughed.
“My mistake was believing you would sign the trust before asking questions.”
“No. Your mistake was hitting Daniela with your right hand.”
Her smile faded.
The video showed a narrow window behind her. Sunlight angled across the wall from the left. A large ring on Patricia’s right hand caught the light.
The ring contained a rare green stone I had purchased from an antique dealer in Annapolis.
It had a built-in insurance tracker.
Patricia did not know because the jeweler installed it after another piece from the collection was stolen years earlier.
I muted the call.
“Marcus.”
“I’m tracing it.”
Patricia continued talking.
“You have two hours.”
I unmuted.
“I need proof Elena is alive.”
“You’re in no position to demand proof.”
“Then you get nothing.”
Patricia moved closer to the camera.
“The brave father act is arriving late, Gabriel.”
“It arrived late. But it arrived.”
For a moment, hatred twisted her face.
“You think Rosa is innocent? Ask her why Elena called her the night of the crash.”
I looked at Rosa.
Her expression changed.
Patricia noticed.
“She never told you?”
“What are you talking about?”
“Ask Rosa what Elena begged her to hide.”
The call ended.
Silence filled the vehicle.
I stared at Rosa.
“What did Elena ask you to hide?”
Rosa looked toward the passing trees.
“Not now.”
“My daughters are tied to chairs.”
“I know.”
“Then tell me.”
Tears gathered in her eyes.
“The night Elena died, she called me from the car.”
“What did she say?”
“She said she had discovered Victor’s theft. She said Samuel knew. Then she told me there was something else in your company records.”
“What?”
“Payments to a woman you had never mentioned.”
I frowned.
“What woman?”
“Isabella Moretti.”
The name struck like a blow.
Isabella was my younger sister.
She had died when I was seventeen.
Or so I had believed.
Rosa continued.
“Elena said the payments were being made every month through Samuel’s office.”
“Why would she ask you to hide that?”
“She believed someone was using your sister’s identity. She wanted to investigate before telling you.”
Marcus looked up from his tablet.
“I have Patricia’s location.”
“Where?”
“A waterfront property on Chesapeake Bay.”
The map showed an isolated mansion surrounded by marshland.
May you like
The deed belonged to Isabella Moretti.
My dead sister owned the house where my daughters were being held.
