Chapter 8 - The Mistake Isabella Made
Police reached Bellhaven eleven minutes later.
Camille was gone.
Julian claimed she had driven away.
Her car remained in the garage.
Charles claimed he had been on a board call.
Security cameras covering the east hallway had lost power for nine minutes.
Exactly long enough.
Isabella exploded.
“We should have sent officers before calling.”
Agent Ruiz replied, “We did not have grounds to enter a private home based solely on her request for immunity.”
“She said she wasn’t safe.”
“And we dispatched local police once the threat became immediate.”
“Too late.”
“Yes.”
The admission did not calm her.
Maria said, “This isn’t his fault.”
Isabella turned.
“No?”
“No.”
Maria’s face was stern.
“You spoke on the call.”
Isabella froze.
“You let Julian hear you.”
“I was trying to stop him.”
“You revealed yourself.”
Isabella’s anger surged.
“Camille is my family.”
“And she tried to kill you.”
“I know!”
“Then stop letting guilt decide faster than strategy.”
Isabella stared at Maria.
The words were cruel.
True.
She walked out.
An hour later, she made another mistake.
She called Julian.
Directly.
Grace found out too late.
Julian answered.
“I knew you were alive.”
“No, you didn’t.”
“I hoped.”
“Don’t.”
His voice softened.
“Bella, there are things you don’t understand.”
She laughed.
“I understand the locking strap.”
“Camille did that.”
“You installed it.”
“She told me Maria had evidence that could destroy your family.”
“So you drowned us?”
“I was trying to force Maria to reveal where it was.”
Isabella stopped.
“That’s your defense?”
“The flooding wasn’t supposed to reach the cabin.”
“You opened the sea intake.”
“Patrick did.”
“At your instruction.”
“He misunderstood.”
“Julian.”
A pause.
“What?”
“Where is Camille?”
“I don’t know.”
“Is she alive?”
Silence.
Isabella’s blood ran cold.
“Julian.”
“She left with someone.”
“Who?”
“Your uncle.”
“Where?”
“I don’t know.”
“You expect me to believe that?”
“No.”
His voice changed.
“I expect you to understand Charles is more dangerous than you think.”
“You worked for him.”
“I worked around him.”
“You slept with his daughter.”
“That wasn’t for him.”
The sentence hurt despite everything.
Julian continued.
“Camille and I were real.”
Isabella closed her eyes.
“Then why is she missing?”
“Because she panicked.”
“Or because you’re killing your witnesses.”
He went silent.
Isabella hung up.
Grace stared at her.
“What did he say?”
She repeated everything.
Agent Ruiz asked, “Did you record it?”
Isabella froze.
“No.”
Grace closed her eyes.
“You called without counsel, without recording coordination, without telling anyone.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“I wanted Camille.”
“And what did you give Julian?”
“My number.”
Ruiz looked up.
“Your location can potentially be narrowed from network data.”
Isabella’s stomach dropped.
Within twenty minutes, the secure facility moved them.
Too late.
A black SUV had already been seen circling the access road.
Nobody knew who was inside.
Isabella stared through the armored vehicle window as they were relocated.
“I keep making it worse.”
Maria sat beside her.
“Yes.”
Isabella looked at her.
“You could soften that.”
“You have enough people in your life who softened consequences.”
Silence.
Maria continued.
“You are frightened. Betrayed. Grieving. None of that makes every instinct wise.”
Isabella nodded.
They moved to Grace’s private coastal house under law-enforcement protection.
That evening, authorities found Camille’s second phone.
Not Camille.
The device had been thrown beside a service road two miles from Bellhaven.
The screen was cracked.
But the data survived.
Messages between Julian and Camille confirmed the affair.
The child was Julian’s.
Other messages showed Camille repeatedly asking whether Isabella had to die.
Julian’s answer:
If she lives past the 35th and takes the trust, Charles loses control and we lose Orion.
Camille:
Then wait until after.
Julian:
After 35, her will controls. Before 35, the family clause controls.
Motive.
Then came Julian’s voice note about Victor.
“My father used to say Charles became untouchable the night Victor died. Reeves handled the medicine, Graham handled the books, and Charles learned nobody asks questions when a rich man has a diagnosis.”
Isabella’s hand shook.
Maria whispered, “That’s enough to reopen everything.”
Another voice note:
“Maria was never stupid. Charles should have finished the job on the stairs.”
Maria looked away.
Grace placed a hand over her mouth.
Then Camille’s reply:
You told me she was permanently paralyzed.
Julian:
Charles knows better.
There it was.
Camille had not known Maria could walk.
But Charles and Julian had.
The final recovered message was sent by Camille six minutes before her phone disappeared.
Not to Julian.
To an unknown email account.
One sentence:
IF THEY TAKE ME, LOOK UNDER THE CHAPEL ALTAR.
Authorities searched the Laurent family chapel.
Beneath a removable altar panel they found a small USB drive.
Camille had hidden it before Julian confronted her.
The drive contained bank records.
Photographs.
A copy of Victor Laurent’s independent toxicology report.
And one video.
Charles Laurent standing in Maria’s bedroom three weeks earlier.
He opened the false back of her closet.
Reached inside.
And removed a plastic bag containing Victor’s old prescription bottles.
Maria stopped breathing.
“He has them.”
May you like
Julian and Charles had already taken the physical evidence of Victor’s poisoning.
And Camille had recorded them doing it.
