Chapter 6 - THE SECOND FIREThe bullet shattered a stained-glass window.
Caleb dragged Daniel behind a pew.
Vivienne dropped beside the altar.
Adrian’s guards raised their weapons, but the shots weren’t coming from Caleb.
They were coming from outside.
Victor Shaw had arrived.
For the next thirty seconds, St. Agnes became chaos.
Glass broke.
Wood splintered.
Caleb crawled toward Vivienne.
“Back door!”
“My mother—”
“Is safe!”
“You don’t know that.”
Neither did she.
Adrian shouted commands.
For the first time, his calm mask disappeared.
Daniel grabbed Caleb’s arm.
“There’s a tunnel beneath the sacristy.”
Caleb stared.
“How do you know?”
“I helped build it.”
Of course he did.
Nothing surprised Caleb anymore.
They reached a narrow basement passage.
Vivienne followed.
Adrian appeared behind them.
“Wait!”
Caleb almost shut the door in his face.
Adrian held up empty hands.
“If Victor gets the ledger, every person named inside either disappears or becomes his property.”
“You expect me to protect you?”
“I expect you to protect your son.”
That worked.
Caleb let him through.
They escaped through a tunnel ending in the woods.
Behind them, St. Agnes burned.
Exactly like Blackridge.
Daniel watched the flames.
“Victor always did like fire.”
Caleb turned on Adrian.
“My father says you started Blackridge.”
Adrian looked at Daniel.
“Your father has told many lies.”
Daniel stepped forward despite his injuries.
“You locked Harrison inside.”
Adrian’s face tightened.
“Harrison chose his fate.”
Vivienne stared at him.
“You mean Dad.”
“He stopped being my father long before that night.”
“You murdered him?”
“No.”
“You ordered his murder.”
Silence.
That was answer enough.
Vivienne slapped him.
Hard.
Adrian accepted it.
“You deserved worse,” she said.
“Yes.”
Caleb wanted to hit him too.
But headlights moved among the trees.
“We need to go.”
Daniel led them toward an old maintenance road.
Caleb’s truck was unreachable.
Adrian had a hidden vehicle two miles away.
During the walk, Caleb stayed beside his father.
Neither knew how to begin.
Eventually Caleb asked:
“Why didn’t you come back?”
Daniel’s shoulders dropped.
“I tried.”
“When?”
“Many times.”
“Funny. I don’t remember any.”
“Victor had people watching Frank’s house. Watching your school. I saw you twice from across the street.”
Caleb stopped.
“You watched me?”
“I had to know you were alive.”
“You could have walked across the street.”
“And maybe gotten you killed.”
Caleb’s voice hardened.
“I buried you.”
Daniel closed his eyes.
“I know.”
“I spent half my life thinking you abandoned me.”
“I know.”
“I got married.”
Daniel nodded.
“Sarah.”
Caleb stared.
“You knew her name?”
“I knew everything I could safely learn.”
Something inside Caleb broke.
“My wife died, Dad.”
“I know.”
“You weren’t there.”
“I know.”
“Stop saying that.”
Daniel looked at him.
Tears stood in the older man’s eyes.
“What would you prefer? That I say I didn’t know? That I didn’t sit in a motel room three states away when I heard about Sarah and hate myself because my son was burying his wife alone?”
Caleb’s anger had nowhere to go.
Daniel continued.
“Every day I stayed gone, I told myself it kept you alive. Maybe I was wrong.”
Caleb looked away.
“I needed you.”
“I know.”
This time Caleb didn’t tell him to stop.
They reached Adrian’s vehicle.
But Adrian was staring at his phone.
“What?”
He turned the screen toward Vivienne.
Live security footage from Caleb’s farmhouse.
The front gate was open.
Several guards lay on the ground.
One SUV burned.
Caleb grabbed the phone.
“Eli.”
A message appeared.
BRING THE ORIGINAL LEDGER TO BLACKRIDGE. MIDNIGHT TOMORROW. NO POLICE.
Caleb almost threw the phone.
“I left him with Eleanor.”
Adrian’s expression changed.
“Where is Eleanor?”
The footage showed no sign of her.
Vivienne called.
No answer.
Again.
Nothing.
Daniel looked grim.
“Victor took them.”
Adrian shook his head.
“No.”
“How do you know?”
“Because Victor doesn’t know your security protocols.”
Vivienne turned.
“What are you saying?”
Adrian stared at the burning SUV.
“I designed them.”
Caleb stepped closer.
“Who else could get past those guards?”
Adrian’s answer was almost a whisper.
“Our mother.”
Vivienne laughed in disbelief.
“Mom?”
Adrian looked at her.
“You think I built Red Hollow alone?”
Silence.
Caleb felt the ground shift beneath him again.
Eleanor Vale.
The elegant woman who arrived promising answers.
The woman who claimed to have spent twenty-four years searching for him.
Daniel’s expression confirmed it.
“You knew?”
“I suspected.”
Vivienne shook her head.
“No.”
Daniel looked at her gently.
“Your mother funded the first Red Hollow accounts.”
“She thought they were legitimate!”
“No. She didn’t.”
Adrian spoke quietly.
“When Father decided to expose everything, Mother had more to lose than any of us.”
Vivienne stared at him.
“You told me Dad was murdered because of you.”
“He was.”
“Then what did Mom do?”
Adrian’s eyes darkened.
“She made sure no one survived to tell the truth.”
Caleb understood.
“The fire.”
Adrian nodded.
“Victor shot Harrison.”
Daniel finished the sentence.
“But Eleanor ordered Blackridge burned.”
Vivienne staggered backward.
Caleb thought of Eleanor comforting Eli.
Watching him eat breakfast.
Asking his name.
Then another thought came.
Something worse.
“Why take my son?”
Adrian looked at Daniel.
Daniel answered.
“Because the ledger you found isn’t the original.”
Caleb frowned.
“It was in the safe.”
“It’s a copy.”
“Then where is the original?”
May you like
Daniel looked directly at his son.
“I gave it to you twenty-four years ago.”
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