Chapter 14 - The Greenhouse
Rain had begun outside.
It tapped softly against the glass roof of the greenhouse.
The sound felt wrong after the chaos inside the estate.
Marcus entered from the east.
Lena approached from the west.
I walked through the center aisle alone.
That was what David expected.
Plants cast long shadows beneath emergency lights.
“David.”
My voice echoed.
No answer.
“Let my father go.”
A figure stepped from behind a row of tall palms.
David Sloan.
His suit was wet.
His right hand held a gun.
His left rested on my father’s shoulder.
Dad looked exhausted but conscious.
“Evelyn.”
“Are you hurt?”
“Nothing serious.”
David laughed.
“You Mercers are incredible.”
He pushed Dad into a chair.
“Even tied up, he spent twenty minutes criticizing my escape plan.”
Dad looked at me.
“It’s a bad plan.”
I almost smiled.
David did not.
“The ledger.”
“I don’t have it.”
“Your mother does.”
“You know she’ll never give it to you.”
“That is why you will convince her.”
“No.”
David raised the gun slightly.
My father spoke calmly.
“Evelyn.”
I looked at him.
“Do not trade evidence for me.”
David sighed.
“Noble.”
Dad ignored him.
“Your mother spent seventeen years protecting that ledger.”
My chest tightened.
“You knew she was alive.”
“Yes.”
“For eight years.”
“Yes.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
His face filled with pain.
“Because I was afraid.”
That answer surprised me.
Not because he had been afraid.
Because my father had never admitted fear.
“Thomas had already taken you once.”
“I thought if you knew Caroline was alive, you would search for her.”
“You were right.”
“I know.”
“And after Grandpa died?”
Dad looked down.
“I tried to bring her home.”
My mother’s earlier words returned.
Richard believes I died nine years ago.
“What happened?”
David answered.
“She refused.”
Dad’s eyes closed.
“She disappeared again.”
“Because David found her?”
Dad looked at him.
“I didn’t know that until tonight.”
David smiled.
“I’m the reason your mother stayed buried.”
Anger burned through me.
“You threatened her.”
“I reminded her what happened when she became brave.”
My father lunged.
David struck him with the gun.
“Stop.”
My voice snapped through the greenhouse.
David turned toward me.
“Then bring me the ledger.”
I reached slowly into my jacket.
Marcus shifted in the shadows.
David saw the movement.
“Security stays back.”
“They’re not moving.”
I pulled out the isolated drive Marcus had given me upstairs.
“This contains the archive.”
David stared at it.
“Not enough.”
“It includes Caroline’s files.”
“The ledger.”
“This is everything I have.”
He studied me.
Then smiled.
“You’re lying.”
“Probably.”
His expression hardened.
A sudden alarm rang beneath the greenhouse floor.
David looked down.
That was his mistake.
Dad kicked the chair backward into his legs.
Marcus moved.
David fired once.
Glass exploded overhead.
Lena tackled him against a planter.
The gun slid across the floor.
I rushed to my father.
He was alive.
Marcus pinned David’s arms behind him.
For a moment, I thought it was over.
Then David laughed.
Not nervously.
Triumphantly.
“You still don’t understand.”
I turned.
“What?”
He looked at my father.
“Ask Richard who actually owns the ledger.”
Dad went still.
May you like
David smiled.
“It was never Caroline.”
