Chapter 6 - THE MAN OUTSIDE THE DOOR -
Nathan raised one finger to his lips.
He closed the laptop and moved quietly toward the kitchen.
I guided Elena into the bedroom and locked the door behind her.
Another shadow crossed the narrow gap beneath the apartment door.
Then came the sound of metal touching the lock.
Someone was trying to enter.
Nathan retrieved a heavy flashlight from his bag.
I picked up a wooden chair.
Neither of us spoke.
The lock turned halfway.
Then the hallway filled with the sound of running footsteps.
A man shouted.
Something struck the wall outside.
A second later, someone knocked three times.
“Mr. Blackwood, this is building security.”
Nathan checked the camera feed on his phone.
A uniformed guard stood in the hallway beside a man wearing dark clothing.
The man’s face was pressed against the floor.
We opened the door only after the police arrived.
The intruder was a private investigator named Calvin Royce.
He had worked for Blackwood Holdings several times.
In his pocket, officers found a lock-picking tool and a small electronic device designed to copy data from nearby computers.
They also found a photograph of Elena leaving the hospital.
Royce refused to explain who had hired him.
He did not need to.
The payment record on his phone came from Northbridge Interiors.
One of my mother’s shell companies had funded the break-in.
The officers took him away shortly after midnight.
Elena sat on the edge of the bed with both hands over her stomach.
“I can’t stay here.”
“We’ll move.”
“They will keep finding us.”
“Then we stop hiding.”
Nathan looked at me.
“What are you thinking?”
“We go public.”
“That could damage the company permanently.”
“The company is already damaged.”
“You may lose control before the hearing.”
“I may lose it anyway.”
I looked toward Elena.
“My silence protected them.”
By sunrise, Nathan had arranged a press conference outside the courthouse.
I would not discuss every piece of evidence.
I would say only enough to make it impossible for my mother to control the narrative.
At eight o’clock, my phone rang.
The caller was an elderly woman named Rosa Alvarez.
She had served as the housekeeper at Blackwood Manor for more than twenty years.
Her voice shook.
“Mr. Daniel, I saw the news.”
“Are you safe?”
“For now.”
“Do you know what my father hid in the basin?”
There was a long silence.
“Yes.”
“What is it?”
“A ledger.”
“Can you get it?”
“No.”
“Why not?”
“Your mother removed the basin last night.”
My heart sank.
“Where did she take it?”
“I don’t know.”
Rosa lowered her voice.
“But before she left, I heard her tell Lucas to prepare the lake house.”
The lake house was three hours north.
It had belonged to my father.
No one had used it since his death.
Rosa began to say something else.
Then a man’s voice sounded in the background.
May you like
The call ended abruptly.
When I called back, Rosa’s phone had been disconnected.
