Chapter 2 - THE MAN WHO RETURNED WITH A DEADLY SECRET
“Get away from my mother.”
Sebastian Hawthorne's voice was so cold that even Grant Mercer reached toward the gun beneath his jacket.
The stranger standing in the library doorway slowly raised both hands.
“Is that how you greet family, Sebastian?”
Olivia Parker felt Margaret Hawthorne's fingers tighten around hers.
The elderly woman's face had turned white. Her trembling hands began moving again, urgently forming words Olivia could barely follow.
Don't trust him. He destroyed the car.
Sebastian took one step forward.
“Uncle Elias?”
The name came out like an accusation.
Elias Hawthorne, Sebastian's father's younger brother, had disappeared from Seattle eight years earlier, shortly after Robert Hawthorne's funeral. Sebastian had searched for him for months before finally accepting that his uncle wanted nothing to do with the family.
Now Elias stood beneath the library chandelier, older, thinner, and wearing a dark coat soaked with October rain.
His right hand trembled.
“I know what happened to Margaret,” he said.
Sebastian crossed the room so quickly that Olivia barely saw him move.
He grabbed Elias by the collar and slammed him against the wall.
“You knew my mother nearly died, and you stayed hidden for three months?”
Elias did not fight back.
“Because the people who wanted her dead are still inside your house.”
The words stopped Sebastian cold.
Behind him, Grant touched his earpiece.
“Sir, we have a problem. Cassandra Whitmore and Charles Vance are missing.”
Sebastian turned.
“What do you mean, missing?”
“They were escorted toward the dining room fifteen minutes ago. Their assigned guards were found unconscious near the service entrance.”
Olivia looked toward the hallway.
Twenty-six wealthy guests had gathered for what was supposed to be a charity dinner. Now two of those guests had disappeared, and the woman who had slapped Olivia in front of everyone was apparently running from the man she intended to marry.
Margaret began signing again.
Olivia swallowed.
“Mrs. Hawthorne says Charles and Elias were together the night before her accident.”
Elias closed his eyes.
Sebastian released his collar.
“Tell me she's wrong.”
“I can't.”
For several seconds, nobody spoke.
Then Sebastian struck his uncle across the face.
Elias stumbled against a bookcase.
“Three months,” Sebastian said, breathing heavily. “My mother has spent three months learning to live in a wheelchair. She wakes up terrified. She can barely speak. And you helped do that to her?”
Elias wiped blood from his lip.
“Yes.”
Olivia heard Margaret make a broken sound.
Elias looked toward her.
“I wasn't supposed to kill you, Margaret. I was told to disable the warning system. Charles said someone would frighten you into leaving Seattle.”
Margaret's hands moved furiously.
Liar. They cut my brakes.
Olivia translated.
Elias lowered his head.
“I discovered what they had done too late.”
Sebastian grabbed him again.
“Who ordered it?”
“Charles arranged it. But Cassandra made sure it happened.”
Sebastian stared at him.
“Cassandra didn't even know my mother eight years ago.”
“This didn't begin with Cassandra. She joined something that was already happening.”
Elias reached slowly into his coat.
Grant drew his gun.
“Hands where I can see them.”
“I'm reaching for a photograph.”
“Then move very carefully.”
Elias produced an old, yellowed picture.
Olivia saw four people standing outside a redbrick building.
Robert Hawthorne, Sebastian's late father, stood beside Margaret. Charles Vance smiled behind them. The fourth person was a young woman holding an infant.
On the brick wall was a sign.
RENA COMMUNITY HOUSING TRUST.
Sebastian took the picture.
“I've never seen this.”
“Your father didn't build RENA to make money,” Elias said. “He created it to protect families being pushed out of their homes. He placed several waterfront properties into a charitable trust.”
“Then why is Cassandra transferring those properties tomorrow?”
“Because the current administrators have been stealing from the foundation for years. The transfer is supposed to bury the evidence.”
Sebastian remembered hundreds of foundation documents he had signed without reading closely enough.
His stomach tightened.
“How much?”
“More than forty million dollars.”
Olivia felt sick.
Margaret reached toward the photograph and touched the woman's face.
Her fingers formed one word.
Ruth.
“Who's Ruth?” Olivia asked.
Elias glanced at Margaret.
“Ruth Bell. Your father's accountant. She discovered Charles was diverting money before Robert died.”
Sebastian frowned.
“Ruth Bell resigned years ago.”
“No,” Elias said. “That's what Charles wanted everyone to believe.”
A sudden crack exploded through the library.
Glass shattered.
Olivia instinctively dropped to her knees as a bullet tore through the window and struck the bookcase behind Elias.
Grant shouted, “DOWN!”
Sebastian lunged toward his mother, throwing himself between her wheelchair and the broken window.
Elias collapsed.
Blood spread across his shoulder.
“Sniper!” Grant shouted into his radio. “North garden! Lock down the house!”
Another shot struck the chandelier.
Crystal rained onto the carpet.
Olivia crawled toward Margaret and covered her with her own body.
The elderly woman was shaking so violently that Olivia feared she might lose consciousness.
“Look at me,” Olivia whispered. “You're safe. I'm right here.”
Margaret caught her hand.
Sebastian.
“He's okay.”
No. Tell him.
Olivia looked toward Sebastian, who was pulling Elias behind the heavy oak desk.
“Your mother has something to say!”
Sebastian turned.
Margaret signed slowly, deliberately.
The man who shot your father is still alive.
Olivia hesitated.
Sebastian saw her expression.
“What?”
She translated.
His face changed.
“My father died of a heart attack.”
Margaret shook her head.
Elias, bleeding onto the carpet, gave a bitter laugh.
“That was the first lie, Sebastian.”
Grant's security team finally secured the garden. The gunman had escaped through a neighboring property, leaving only a rifle casing and tire tracks.
A doctor from the dinner party treated Elias's shoulder while Grant questioned everyone still inside the mansion.
Sebastian remained beside his mother.
He looked older than he had an hour earlier.
“Why didn't you tell me about Dad?” he asked.
Margaret struggled to lift her hands.
I tried.
Tears slipped down her cheeks.
You were in danger.
Sebastian covered his face.
For years, he had believed his father's sudden death was the beginning of his family's suffering.
Now he was being told it was the beginning of a conspiracy.
Olivia stood quietly nearby.
She wanted to leave. She wanted to find her brother and never set foot inside the Hawthorne mansion again.
But Margaret looked at her with such helpless trust that Olivia couldn't move.
Then her phone rang.
Daniel.
She answered immediately.
“Danny?”
Her brother's voice sounded strange.
“Liv, listen carefully. Two men came into the shop asking about Mrs. Hawthorne's car.”
Olivia straightened.
“What men?”
“One wore a gray coat. The other—”
Something crashed in the background.
Daniel cried out.
“Danny!”
His phone hit the floor.
She heard heavy footsteps, a muffled struggle, and a man's voice.
“Tell your sister she should have served the wine.”
The call ended.
Olivia stood frozen.
Sebastian approached.
“What happened?”
She showed him her phone.
“My brother. They have my brother.”
Sebastian took out his own phone.
“Grant, send every available man to Parker Auto Repair. Now.”
But before he finished speaking, a message appeared on Olivia's screen.
It contained a video.
Daniel sat tied to a metal chair inside a dimly lit warehouse. Blood ran from his eyebrow.
A familiar blonde woman stepped into view.
Cassandra Whitmore.
She smiled directly at the camera.
“Hello, Olivia. I warned you what would happen if you couldn't follow instructions.”
Daniel struggled against the ropes.
Cassandra placed a hand on his shoulder.
“Tomorrow morning, Sebastian is supposed to sign away something very valuable. Unfortunately, his mother has made that difficult.”
Olivia gripped the phone with both hands.
“What does she want?” Sebastian demanded.
A second message arrived.
It contained an address near Seattle's industrial waterfront.
Beneath it were five words.
BRING MARGARET, OR DANIEL DIES.
Olivia looked at the elderly woman who had begged her not to leave.
Then she looked at her brother's terrified face on the screen.
May you like
And she understood the terrible choice Cassandra had arranged.
To save the only family Olivia had left, she would have to surrender the woman who trusted her with her life.
