Chapter 12 – The Mansion
Chapter 12 – The Mansion
Rain poured through the pine trees, turning the narrow path to Blackwood Hunting Lodge into a river of mud.
Every weapon remained trained on Vanessa Monroe.
She stood on the weathered porch with her hands raised, soaked to the skin, trembling—not from the cold, but from fear.
Adrian was the first to speak.
"You expect us to believe you now?"
Vanessa closed her eyes.
"I don't expect you to believe anything."
"I only expect you to listen."
Detective Laura Hayes motioned two officers forward.
"Cuff her."
Vanessa offered no resistance.
As the handcuffs clicked shut around her wrists, she whispered,
"We're already running out of time."
Inside the hunting lodge, dust covered everything.
The fireplace was still warm.
A kettle sat over glowing embers.
Someone had been there recently.
Very recently.
Hayes surveyed the room.
"Search every inch."
Officers spread through the old cabin.
Within minutes, one of them called out.
"Detective!"
Hayes hurried into what had once been a study.
Books lined every wall.
Most had rotted with age.
One shelf, however, was spotless.
Someone had been using it.
The officer pulled a leather-bound volume.
Nothing happened.
He tried another.
A loud metallic click echoed beneath the floor.
The bookshelf slowly swung inward.
Behind it...
A narrow stone staircase descended into darkness.
Flashlights illuminated the underground passage.
The air smelled damp.
Ancient.
As though no sunlight had touched it for decades.
The tunnel led beneath the lodge and ended at a massive iron door.
It stood slightly open.
Inside lay a hidden chamber.
Not a prison.
Not a bunker.
A library.
Thousands of documents filled wooden shelves.
Family photographs.
Business ledgers.
Newspaper clippings.
The history of the DeLuca family, carefully preserved.
In the center of the room stood a long oak table.
On it rested a single photograph.
Nicholas and Robert.
Older now.
Smiling.
Their arms around each other's shoulders.
The date written beneath it stopped Adrian cold.
Two weeks before Robert died.
"They found each other."
Samuel Reeves picked up the photograph with trembling hands.
"They reconciled."
Harold Bennett shook his head.
"Then why didn't Robert tell anyone?"
No one answered.
Because another discovery demanded their attention.
A tape recorder.
Old.
Covered in dust.
A yellow note rested beside it.
For Adrian.
Hayes inserted fresh batteries.
The machine crackled.
Then a man's voice filled the underground chamber.
Older.
Weaker.
But unmistakable.
Nicholas DeLuca.
"If you're hearing this..."
"...I'm probably already dead."
Adrian felt every muscle in his body tighten.
"Robert finally found me."
"He never stopped looking."
"He apologized for something that was never his fault."
Samuel lowered his head.
Tears filled his eyes.
"Our father didn't choose one son over another."
"Someone changed the will."
Harold whispered,
"We already know."
The recording continued.
"Robert wanted to tell the world."
"I begged him not to."
Adrian frowned.
"Why?"
Nicholas answered moments later.
"Because the people behind the forgery weren't finished."
The tape hissed softly.
"Victor isn't innocent."
"But he isn't the mastermind."
Detective Hayes looked at Adrian.
Neither spoke.
They had heard those words before.
Then came the sentence none of them expected.
"The man you need to fear..."
The recording suddenly distorted.
Static filled the room.
Nicholas's voice disappeared beneath loud interference.
"No..."
Samuel muttered.
"Please..."
The tape recovered for only a moment.
"...the mansion..."
Then silence.
The cassette stopped.
The magnetic tape had snapped.
Hayes cursed quietly.
"The most important part."
"Gone."
Vanessa, who had been listening from the doorway under police guard, spoke softly.
"It wasn't gone."
Everyone turned toward her.
"It was erased."
Adrian stepped closer.
"You've lied enough."
Vanessa shook her head.
"I helped Victor."
"I helped steal money."
"I helped destroy evidence."
She looked down at her handcuffs.
"But I never wanted Elena dead."
Adrian's voice turned icy.
"You pushed my pregnant wife down a staircase."
"I know."
Tears rolled down her face.
"I'll regret that until I die."
Hayes folded her arms.
"Then start telling the truth."
Vanessa nodded.
"Victor hired me five years ago."
"To help move money."
"Nothing more."
"But last month..."
"He received a call."
"From who?"
Vanessa looked directly at Adrian.
"I never learned his real name."
"What did Victor call him?"
She swallowed.
"Chairman."
The word echoed through the chamber.
Samuel frowned.
"I've never heard that name."
Vanessa continued.
"Victor was terrified of him."
"He took orders."
"He never gave them."
Adrian stared at her.
"Victor feared someone?"
"More than death."
Vanessa pointed toward one of the shelves.
"The files."
"They're not financial records."
"They're insurance."
"What do you mean?"
"If Victor ever died..."
"...those files were supposed to expose everyone."
Hayes immediately ordered officers to secure every document.
"No one touches anything without cataloging it."
As officers began boxing the evidence, one detective noticed a thick envelope hidden beneath the oak table.
It bore no name.
Only a wax seal stamped with the DeLuca family crest.
Inside was a handwritten letter.
The signature at the bottom read:
Robert DeLuca.
Adrian unfolded the letter carefully.
It had been written only three days before his death.
To whoever survives this,
I'm finally bringing Nicholas home.
His voice cracked as he continued reading.
We've spent twenty-three years believing the wrong enemy.
Samuel closed his eyes.
Robert had known.
The letter continued.
Victor admitted he helped alter the will.
But he also admitted someone forced him to do it.
Adrian looked up.
"The Chairman."
Vanessa nodded.
"Yes."
Tomorrow morning, Nicholas and I are meeting the man responsible.
If we fail...
Protect Margaret.
Silence.
Then the final sentence.
She knows where the original will is hidden.
Adrian's heart pounded.
"My mother knew."
Elena looked at him.
"But she never told anyone."
Suddenly, one of the officers shouted from the far end of the chamber.
"Detective!"
Hayes hurried over.
The officer pointed toward the stone wall.
"There are fresh footprints."
Not decades old.
Fresh.
Someone had been inside the hidden chamber within the last twenty-four hours.
Hayes slowly raised her flashlight.
The footprints led to another passage.
A narrow tunnel disappearing deeper beneath the mountain.
Adrian looked toward Vanessa.
"You knew about this?"
She nodded once.
"He lives beyond that tunnel."
"Who?"
Vanessa's face lost all color.
"The Chairman."
Before anyone could react, a single gunshot echoed through the underground chamber.
The sound was deafening.
An officer collapsed.
Chaos erupted.
"Sniper!"
"Take cover!"
Flashlights swung wildly through the darkness.
Dust rained from the ceiling.
A second shot struck the stone wall inches from Adrian's head.
The tactical team returned fire toward the mouth of the tunnel.
But the shooter was already retreating into the darkness.
Vanessa screamed.
"No!"
She struggled against the officers holding her.
"You don't understand!"
"If he escapes again..."
"...you'll never find Nicholas alive."
The tunnel swallowed the sound of hurried footsteps.
For the first time since the investigation began, Adrian realized they were no longer chasing a conspiracy from the past.
They were chasing someone who had been watching every move they made...
May you like
And who was now only a few hundred feet away.
End of Chapter 12
