CHAPTER 6: THE ESTATE
We drove through the darkness, the rain pounding against the windshield. Mark took back roads, avoiding the main thoroughfares where Vivian's people might be watching.
The estate loomed out of the night, dark and silent.
"How are we going to get in?" Sarah asked.
"I know a way," I said. "My father showed me when I was a child. A hidden entrance through the old wine cellar."
Mark parked the car at the edge of the woods, far enough from the house that the floodlights wouldn't reach us.
"Lead the way," he said.
I limped through the trees, following the path I hadn't walked in twenty years. The rain had turned the ground to mud, and every step sent pain shooting through my body.
But I kept going.
The wine cellar entrance was hidden behind a thicket of overgrown ivy. I pushed aside the vines and found the old iron door.
"Help me," I said.
Mark and Sarah pulled at the rusted hinges until the door creaked open.
We stepped inside.
The cellar was dark, damp, and smelled of old wine and decay. Cobwebs hung from the ceiling, and the floor was covered in dust.
"The study is on the second floor," I whispered. "My father's safe is hidden behind a painting."
We moved through the house like ghosts. Every creak of the floorboards sent my heart racing.
We reached the study.
The painting was still there, the same portrait of our mother that had hung on that wall for fifty years.
I lifted it, revealing the safe behind it.
"Can you open it?" Mark asked.
I closed my eyes and remembered the combination.
Our mother's birthday. Our father's birthday. My birthday.
The safe clicked open.
Inside, I found what I was looking for.
A folder.
I opened it and started reading.
The accounts. The transfers. The letters from Vivian's lawyers. The proof that James and Vivian had been stealing from the family for years.
"Claire, we have to go," Sarah urged. "I hear something."
I grabbed the folder.
"The evidence is here," I said. "I have everything."
We turned to leave.
May you like
And standing in the doorway, holding a silver revolver, was Vivian.
"Hello, Claire," she said, her green dress glistening in the dim light. "I was wondering when you'd come back."
