Chapter 10 - THE LAST NIGHT AT ELLINGTON HOUSE
Robert moved before Sam finished speaking.
“Down!”
He pulled the boy behind the stone wall beneath the library window.
The shot shattered the glass.
Elizabeth screamed from the hallway.
Security alarms erupted.
“Thomas is outside!”
Robert crawled toward the door.
Nathan’s voice thundered through the house.
“Lockdown!”
Another shot struck the fireplace.
Sam covered his ears.
Robert looked at him.
“Stay here.”
“No.”
“Sam.”
“He came for me.”
“He came for all of us.”
Robert put both hands on the boy’s shoulders.
“And I need you to listen to me now.”
Sam stared at him.
“Stay with Elizabeth.”
Robert ran into the hallway.
Nathan met him.
“How did he get here?”
“Stole a marina vehicle. We found it near the south gate.”
“Where are your men?”
“Closing the perimeter.”
A crash sounded upstairs.
Nathan looked toward the ceiling.
“He’s inside.”
Robert’s stomach dropped.
Thomas had spent decades visiting Ellington House.
He knew every service passage.
Every old door.
Every renovation.
“Elizabeth.”
They ran back.
The library was empty.
“Elizabeth!”
Robert saw wheelchair tracks leading toward the corridor.
Then Sam’s voice.
“Mr. Ellington!”
Upstairs.
Impossible.
Sam came running down the main staircase.
“Mrs. Ellington is gone.”
Robert grabbed him.
“What happened?”
“She said she heard Maria calling.”
Maria appeared from the opposite corridor.
“I didn’t call anyone.”
Nathan swore.
Thomas had lured Elizabeth away.
Robert ran toward the old east wing.
“Thomas!”
No answer.
The east wing contained unused bedrooms and the original family ballroom.
At the far end was an old mechanical elevator installed when Elizabeth became disabled.
Robert saw the indicator.
Basement.
“He took her down.”
Nathan called his men.
“No elevator. We take stairs.”
They descended.
The basement level of Ellington House was enormous.
Wine cellar.
Boiler room.
Storage.
Old servants’ corridors.
Robert heard wheels.
A chair moving over concrete.
“Elizabeth!”
“Robert!”
Her voice echoed.
He ran toward it.
Thomas stood behind Elizabeth near the old furnace room.
One hand gripped the back of her wheelchair.
The other held the pistol against her neck.
Robert stopped.
Nathan raised his weapon.
Thomas smiled.
“You always did surround yourself with employees, Robert.”
“Let her go.”
“Send Nathan away.”
“No.”
Thomas pressed the gun closer.
Elizabeth’s face remained remarkably calm.
“Do it,” she told Robert.
Nathan lowered his gun.
Thomas nodded toward the corridor.
“Leave.”
Nathan looked at Robert.
Robert gave the smallest nod.
Nathan backed away.
Thomas looked toward Sam.
The boy had followed.
“Samuel Bell.”
Sam stood beside Robert.
“So much trouble from such a small person.”
Robert stepped in front of him.
“You don’t speak to him.”
Thomas laughed.
“Nora used to do that.”
Sam’s voice shook.
“You killed my mom.”
“Julian did.”
“You told him to.”
Thomas’s smile faded.
“You’ve become very confident.”
“Because people believe me now.”
Something passed across Thomas’s face.
That was what he feared most.
Not police.
Not prison.
Belief.
Elizabeth seemed to understand too.
“Nora scared you because people might believe her.”
Thomas looked down.
“You never knew when to remain quiet.”
“You tried to kill me.”
“I tried to preserve my family.”
“This family?”
Elizabeth glanced around the basement.
“You poisoned your brother. Used my stepbrother. Murdered a mother. Kidnapped people. Stole from children and families who needed help.”
Thomas’s face hardened.
“You know nothing about building something that lasts.”
Sam spoke.
“My mom lasted.”
Thomas looked at him.
“So did Mr. Ellington’s dad.”
Robert almost smiled.
“So did Mrs. Ellington.”
Sam took one step.
“And so did I.”
Thomas’s hand shook.
Robert saw it.
So did Elizabeth.
She suddenly drove her elbow backward.
The gun shifted.
Robert charged.
Thomas fired.
The bullet struck the ceiling.
Nathan came from the side corridor.
Thomas swung the weapon.
Elizabeth grabbed his wrist.
Her wheelchair tilted.
“Elizabeth!”
Robert hit Thomas.
The gun flew.
Sam kicked it beneath a storage rack.
Nathan slammed Thomas against the wall.
Thomas fought wildly.
“Get off me!”
Robert dropped beside Elizabeth.
She was on the floor.
“Are you hurt?”
“No.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yes.”
She laughed shakily.
“I am getting very tired of falling out of that chair.”
Robert pulled her into his arms.
Behind them, Nathan cuffed Thomas.
This time with two sets.
Police flooded the basement.
Thomas Ellington screamed threats until they took him away.
Sam stood beside Elizabeth’s overturned wheelchair.
His hands were trembling.
Robert reached for him.
The boy came immediately.
Robert wrapped one arm around Sam and one around Elizabeth.
For the first time in forty-eight hours, there was no enemy left inside the house.
But consequences remained.
Julian Mercer entered federal custody.
His confession led investigators to offshore accounts containing millions in stolen funds.
He admitted to administering the drugs that killed Nora Bell.
He admitted arranging sabotage to Elizabeth’s car.
He admitted kidnapping Emily Dean under Thomas’s instructions.
And he admitted that Thomas had ordered the cover-up surrounding Edward Ellington’s death.
Edward’s body was exhumed.
Weeks later, laboratory testing found traces of a heart medication he had never been prescribed.
The death investigation was reopened as homicide.
Thomas Ellington was charged with conspiracy, financial crimes, kidnapping, attempted murder, and multiple counts related to the deaths of Edward Ellington and Nora Bell.
The press descended.
ELLINGTON EMPIRE HIDES DECADES OF CORRUPTION.
MILLIONAIRE’S UNCLE ARRESTED.
HOMELESS BOY UNLOCKS CORPORATE MURDER CASE.
Robert hated the last headline.
“He isn’t a homeless boy,” he snapped when he saw it.
Elizabeth looked over her coffee.
“You could tell them what he is.”
Robert looked toward the garden.
Sam was outside with Nathan, shooting basketball.
“What is he?”
Elizabeth smiled.
“I think you know.”
Robert did.
But one problem remained.
Sam still technically belonged to the state.
Robert and Elizabeth had been temporary guardians during an emergency placement.
The criminal case surrounding Nora reopened questions about family.
Social services began searching for biological relatives.
Sam pretended not to care.
Robert knew better.
One evening, he found the boy packing.
Robert stood in the doorway.
“What are you doing?”
“Nothing.”
“That looks remarkably like something.”
Sam shoved a sweater into his backpack.
“They found my aunt.”
Robert’s chest tightened.
“What?”
“Mom’s sister.”
“Where?”
“Ohio.”
“Did social services tell you?”
“Yeah.”
“And you decided to pack without telling us?”
Sam shrugged.
“They’ll probably send me there.”
“Probably?”
“She’s family.”
Robert sat on the bed.
“So are we.”
Sam looked at him.
“Not legally.”
The words hurt more than Robert expected.
“Do you want to go?”
“I don’t know her.”
“That wasn’t my question.”
Sam’s face crumpled.
“No.”
Robert stood.
“Then stop packing.”
“You can’t just decide.”
“You’re right.”
Robert knelt in front of him.
“But you get to have a voice.”
“Kids don’t get voices in stuff like this.”
“They do when people listen.”
Sam stared at him.
Robert continued.
“Elizabeth and I want to adopt you.”
The boy stopped breathing.
“We should have asked sooner.”
Sam’s eyes filled.
“You mean it?”
“Yes.”
“Even after everything?”
Robert almost laughed.
“Especially after everything.”
Sam looked down.
“What if I mess up?”
“You will.”
His head snapped up.
“So will I.”
Robert smiled.
“Elizabeth already does.”
From the hallway came her voice.
“I heard that.”
Sam laughed through his tears.
Robert had not heard that laugh enough.
He wanted decades of it.
Then Sam’s phone buzzed.
A message from Detective Ward.
Sam opened it.
His expression changed.
“What?”
He handed the phone to Robert.
The message contained a photograph of evidence recovered from Thomas’s private safe.
A letter addressed to Sam.
Written by Nora Bell.
But beneath Sam’s name was another line.
TO ROBERT ELLINGTON—WHEN HE IS READY TO KNOW WHY SAM WAS REALLY SENT TO HIM.
May you like
Robert stared at it.
After everything, Nora had left one more secret.
