Chapter 9 - FIRE IN MY FATHER’S STUDY -
The fire spread faster than anyone expected.
Nathan grabbed the ledger.
Mara pulled a curtain from the wall and tried to smother the flames.
Smoke filled the narrow hallway.
Lucas stood frozen near the door.
For one terrible moment, I considered leaving him there.
Then I saw the same frightened boy who used to follow me through the orchard when we were children.
I crossed the room, seized his jacket, and dragged him away from the flames.
A deputy broke the rear window with his baton.
We climbed outside as fire consumed the study.
Lucas collapsed on the wet grass, coughing.
The deputies handcuffed him before he could stand.
“Where is Rosa?” I demanded.
He looked toward the burning house.
“Mom sent her away.”
“Where?”
“I don’t know.”
I grabbed the front of his shirt.
“You were at the estate.”
“She was alive when I left.”
“Where did Vivian send her?”
Lucas looked at the deputies.
“I want a lawyer.”
Nathan placed a hand on my shoulder.
“Let them take him.”
The ledger survived.
Several pages had been damaged by water, but the financial records remained readable.
The sheriff transferred Lucas to county custody on charges of attempted arson, evidence destruction, and financial fraud.
By midnight, my mother had paid a team of attorneys to challenge the arrest.
She also issued a statement claiming Lucas had gone to the lake house to prevent me from destroying family property.
Her ability to reverse the truth seemed endless.
However, the ledger had changed everything.
Mara compared the entries with company accounts.
The payments to Dr. Mercer matched withdrawals from Meridian Wellness.
One payment had been made two days before my father’s death.
Another had been made the morning after his funeral.
Nathan contacted the district attorney.
A judge authorized the exhumation of my father’s body.
The order would remain sealed until investigators could collect his medical records.
At three in the morning, I returned to Elena.
She was awake, sitting beneath a soft reading light.
When I told her about the fire, she touched my face.
“You saved Lucas.”
“I almost didn’t.”
“But you did.”
“He tried to burn us alive.”
“I know.”
She rested her forehead against mine.
“You saved him because you are not your mother.”
Her words stayed with me.
I told her about the payments to Dr. Mercer.
Elena became still.
“What is it?”
“Mercer gave me pills.”
“When?”
“Every time you traveled.”
“What pills?”
“He said they were vitamins for the baby.”
“Did you take them?”
“Some of them.”
Fear moved through me.
“Do you still have the bottle?”
She nodded slowly.
“It’s inside the nursery at the manor.”
At that moment, the monitor beside her began sounding an alarm.
May you like
Elena gasped and grabbed her stomach.
A dark stain spread across the hospital sheet.
