Chapter 9 - THE ROOM UNDER THE ROOM
Gabriel tore through the mansion.
Security searched every hallway.
Hannah screamed Eli's name.
Then she stopped.
“Wait.”
“What?”
“The boat.”
Gabriel looked down.
The wooden sailboat had been left behind.
Hannah picked it up.
“Claire said the secret was underneath.”
She turned it over.
A hidden compartment opened.
Inside was a key.
A small brass key.
Gabriel recognized it.
His father's.
They searched the basement again.
The key fit a door behind the old furnace.
A second staircase descended.
Below it was another room.
Smaller.
Older.
There were no cameras.
Only shelves.
On one shelf was a box labeled:
ELI.
Gabriel opened it.
Inside was a video recorder.
He pressed play.
Claire appeared.
“Gabriel, if you're seeing this, Eli has probably been taken.”
Gabriel's heart stopped.
“I need you to understand something.”
Claire smiled sadly.
“I never stopped loving you.”
Gabriel closed his eyes.
“But loving you became dangerous.”
She continued.
“You were becoming obsessed with control.”
Gabriel looked at Hannah.
Claire spoke again.
“You watched Eli because you were afraid someone would hurt him.”
A pause.
“But Eli didn't need another person watching him.”
Gabriel swallowed.
“He needed someone willing to sit beside him.”
Tears filled his eyes.
“That person is Hannah.”
Hannah covered her mouth.
Claire continued.
“If anything happens to me, trust her.”
Gabriel looked toward the door.
A sound came from above.
Footsteps.
He reached for his weapon.
Then a voice came through the speaker.
Daniel.
“You finally found it.”
Gabriel looked at the ceiling.
“Where's my son?”
“Safe.”
“Bring him back.”
“You still don't understand.”
“What?”
“This was never about Eli.”
Gabriel's jaw tightened.
“Then what?”
“You.”
The lights went out.
A door slammed.
Gabriel heard Hannah scream.
Then silence.
Emergency lights flickered on.
Hannah was gone.
Gabriel ran upstairs.
A monitor turned on.
Daniel appeared.
Hannah sat beside him.
Eli was there too.
Both were unharmed.
Daniel looked into the camera.
“You wanted the truth.”
Gabriel stared.
“Then watch.”
The screen changed.
A recording from eleven months earlier.
The night of the bombing.
Claire stood beside her car.
She was speaking to someone.
Not Daniel.
Not Victor.
Another man.
Gabriel leaned closer.
The man turned.
Gabriel recognized him.
His own head of security.
Mason Reed.
Mason handed Claire a phone.
Claire looked terrified.
Then Mason said:
“You have one choice.”
Claire answered:
“I'll never give you Eli.”
Mason smiled.
“Then Gabriel will.”
The recording ended.
Gabriel's blood went cold.
Mason had been beside him all along.
Daniel's voice returned.
“Now you understand.”
Gabriel whispered:
“You kidnapped them.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because Mason is coming.”
Gabriel looked around.
“What?”
“He thinks you have the files.”
Gabriel heard the mansion doors open.
Multiple footsteps.
Mason's voice echoed downstairs.
“Gabriel!”
Daniel spoke softly.
“Now choose.”
The screen showed Eli.
Then Hannah.
Then the basement files.
“Save the evidence,” Daniel said.
“Or save them.”
Gabriel stared.
For years, he had chosen control.
Money.
Power.
Evidence.
Security.
But now he understood the trap.
Daniel wasn't asking him to choose between his son and the truth.
He was asking him whether he would finally trust someone else.
Gabriel shut off the monitor.
Then he called the one person he had never trusted.
The police.
Not his men.
Not his lawyers.
Not his security team.
The police.
He gave them everything.
Every file.
Every name.
Every recording.
Then he walked upstairs.
Mason stood in the foyer.
“You betrayed me.”
Mason smiled.
“No, Gabriel.”
He raised his gun.
“I betrayed the man you used to be.”
Gabriel looked at him.
“And the man I am now?”
Mason's smile disappeared.
May you like
“He's worse.”
A gunshot rang out.
