Chapter 6 - What Happened That Night
Julian took Emily back to the west gatehouse after dark.
Rebecca hated the idea.
Emily insisted.
“If somebody lured us there, I want to know why.”
Blackthorne security could legally exclude Julian from most of the estate, but the west gatehouse sat on a separate parcel still owned by the Vale Family Trust. Julian’s counsel confirmed he retained beneficiary access.
They parked along an old service road.
The gatehouse had not changed.
Stone walls.
Copper roof.
A narrow bedroom above a sitting room that still smelled faintly of cedar.
Emily stood beneath the staircase.
“I hated you the next morning.”
Julian looked surprised.
“You left before I woke up.”
“I thought you left.”
“I was outside trying to get cell service.”
Emily frowned.
“When I came downstairs, you were gone.”
Julian’s face changed.
“You came downstairs?”
“Yes.”
“I came back ten minutes later. Your coat was gone.”
“I left because someone slipped a note under the door.”
“What note?”
Emily stared.
“You didn’t write it?”
“No.”
Her breathing slowed.
The note had contained five words.
HE LIED. GET OUT NOW.
She had assumed it referred to Julian refusing to explain his connection to Blackthorne.
She had left through the kitchen door and walked nearly a mile to the staff entrance.
Julian went upstairs.
Emily followed.
He examined the bedroom door.
“Someone could have pushed paper under here from the hall.”
“But we were the only ones inside.”
“Were we?”
He crossed to a narrow linen closet.
Behind stacked blankets was a service panel.
Julian pulled it open.
A maintenance corridor ran behind the wall.
Emily stared.
“Someone was inside.”
“Possibly.”
“You knew about this?”
“No.”
He took out his phone and photographed everything.
Emily stood rigidly.
“Victoria arranged the messages. She had the gatehouse unlocked. Someone disabled the alarm and trapped us.”
“Likely.”
“Why?”
“To catch me violating the property agreement, maybe.”
“Then why involve me?”
Julian’s silence told her he had a theory.
“Say it.”
“Because of Nora.”
Emily wrapped her arms around herself.
Julian sat on the edge of an old table.
“I need to tell you something else.”
She laughed without humor.
“Of course you do.”
“I came back to Bedford in September because I had learned Nora hired forensic accountants.”
Emily’s face hardened.
“You knew about my mother before that night.”
“I knew Nora Carter existed.”
“You told me yesterday you didn’t know I was her daughter.”
“I didn’t.”
“But you were looking for her evidence.”
“Yes.”
She stepped back.
“Then our meeting wasn’t meaningless to you.”
“It became something else.”
“That is not an answer.”
“I entered the gatehouse looking for records. I met you there by accident from my perspective.”
“Then you let me spend hours telling you about my mother without saying you were investigating her.”
“I didn’t know Nora was your mother until you said her first name. By then—”
“By then what?”
He stood.
“By then I was afraid if I told you who I was, you’d leave.”
Emily’s eyes filled with anger.
“You made that choice for me.”
“Yes.”
“That is exactly what she warned me about.”
Julian looked struck.
“Who?”
“My mother.”
She pulled out Nora’s letter.
“‘Both brothers grew up believing ownership gave them permission to decide other people’s futures.’”
Julian read it.
His jaw tightened.
“She wasn’t wrong.”
Emily looked at him.
The admission disarmed her more than denial would have.
“You gave me your pendant.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because I wanted you to believe I meant to come back.”
“You could have given me your last name.”
“I was ashamed of it.”
“That doesn’t make the lie noble.”
“No.”
Silence stretched.
Emily looked toward the bed.
Memory pressed against her painfully.
What had happened between them had been consensual. Tender, even. Neither of them drunk. Neither coerced.
But consent to one night had not been consent to hidden motives.
“I don’t regret the baby,” she said.
Julian’s eyes moved to her stomach.
“But?”
“I regret how little I knew about you.”
He nodded slowly.
“That’s fair.”
Before Emily could answer, headlights swept across the windows.
A vehicle stopped outside.
Julian moved toward the door.
“No.”
Emily grabbed his sleeve.
“What?”
“If Victoria wants you caught here again, walking outside is exactly what she wants.”
They turned off their flashlights.
A car door slammed.
Footsteps approached.
Then someone entered the gatehouse.
Emily and Julian retreated behind the service panel.
Through a crack, Emily saw Peter Daines, Blackthorne’s head of security.
He carried a flashlight and a red metal toolbox.
Peter walked directly to the staircase.
He opened the maintenance panel.
Emily held her breath.
But instead of entering, he crouched and removed a small black device from beneath the lowest stair.
A camera.
Julian raised his phone and silently recorded.
Peter slipped the device into the toolbox.
Then his radio crackled.
Victoria’s voice.
“Did you find the old unit?”
“Yes.”
“Destroy it.”
Emily’s hand flew to her mouth.
Peter replied, “What about the September backup?”
A pause.
Then Victoria said, “I told you. That footage cannot exist.”
Julian’s eyes met Emily’s.
Peter closed the toolbox.
Victoria continued through the radio.
“If anyone sees who entered that passage after Emily and Julian were locked inside, we lose control of this.”
Emily stopped breathing.
Someone had been there.
May you like
And Victoria knew exactly who.
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