Chapter 4 - ISABEL’S LAST NIGHT
Elena had spent four years imagining how the truth might come out.
Never like this.
Not beneath the burned ceiling of Victoria’s study.
Not surrounded by smoke and broken glass.
And certainly not with Richard Harrington staring at her as if the past had just risen from the dead.
“My mother was diagnosed with heart failure,” Elena said.
“That is what her medical records say.”
Richard nodded slowly.
“But?”
“But three weeks before she died, she told me someone had been following her.”
Victoria scoffed.
“She was sick.”
“She was frightened.”
“She was confused.”
Elena’s eyes snapped toward her.
“She remembered your name.”
That silenced Victoria.
Julian stepped closer.
“What did Isabel say about my mother?”
“She said Victoria knew what happened in 1998.”
Richard frowned.
“What happened in 1998?”
Elena removed her phone.
“I didn’t know until recently.”
She opened an image.
It was a scan of a newspaper clipping.
HARRINGTON ACCOUNTANT KILLED IN LATE-NIGHT CRASH.
Julian read the headline.
“Samuel Torres.”
“My grandfather.”
Richard stared at Elena.
“Isabel’s father.”
“Yes.”
Richard took the phone.
“I remember this.”
“He worked for Harrington Holdings.”
“He was our senior accountant.”
Victoria looked away.
Elena noticed.
“My mother believed his death wasn’t an accident.”
Julian looked at Richard.
“What happened?”
“His car went off a bridge.”
Elena shook her head.
“His brake lines were cut.”
Richard’s head snapped toward her.
“What?”
“I obtained the original accident report six months ago.”
“The first responding officer recorded evidence of deliberate tampering.”
“That page disappeared from the official file two days later.”
Victoria walked toward the hallway.
Richard blocked her path.
“Where are you going?”
“I’m tired.”
“You’re staying.”
Victoria’s eyes flashed.
“You do not command me.”
“Tonight I do.”
Julian looked at Elena.
“Why would anyone kill your grandfather?”
Elena reached into her coat pocket.
This time, she removed something she had never kept in her handbag.
A small brass key.
“My mother left me this too.”
“What does it open?”
“I don’t know.”
Victoria’s breathing changed.
It was subtle.
But Elena saw it.
So did Julian.
He turned toward his mother.
“You recognize that key.”
“No.”
“You looked at it.”
“I’m looking at all of you because you’ve lost your minds.”
Elena held the key up.
“There are three letters stamped on the back.”
Richard leaned closer.
“HVA.”
Victoria suddenly lunged forward.
She grabbed Elena’s wrist.
“Give me that.”
Julian caught his mother’s arm.
“What the hell are you doing?”
Victoria pulled away.
No one spoke.
They no longer needed to ask whether she recognized the key.
Her reaction had answered them.
Richard looked at Elena.
“HVA used to stand for Harrington Vault Archive.”
Julian frowned.
“We have an archive?”
“Not anymore.”
Richard looked toward the west side of the estate.
“The original vault was sealed twenty-five years ago.”
Elena felt her heartbeat accelerate.
“Where?”
Richard looked at her.
“Under this house.”
May you like
Victoria went pale.
And that was when Elena knew the answers she had spent four years searching for had been beneath her feet the entire time.
