Chapter 3 - Fourteen Years of Darkness.
Emergency lights washed the foyer in dim red as guests screamed and stumbled away from the tables.
James reached Ava before the darkness fully settled and pulled her against the solid line of his shoulder.
"Stay with me."
Ava could hear Nolan breathing somewhere to her right.
She could also hear Victor swearing under his breath near the staircase.
Then a phone flashlight cut through the darkness.
Elena stood near the patio doors with her own light pointed toward the floor, keeping her face visible without blinding anyone.
"The backup generator will start in thirty seconds."
Victor's voice came from the dark.
"How would you know that?"
Elena answered immediately.
"Because this house was built with money stolen from my company."
The emergency generator roared somewhere outside.
Warm lights returned in sections, revealing Nolan beside the security panel with one hand still pressed against the touchscreen.
James looked at him.
"Step away from it."
Nolan's frosting-covered face twisted with anger.
"You don't give orders here."
James took one step forward.
Nolan stepped away.
Ava almost laughed, but the sound caught painfully in her throat.
Elena approached her slowly.
"You died."
Elena stopped three feet away.
"They told you I died."
"There was a funeral."
"There was a closed casket."
James looked as if each word were striking him in the chest.
"I identified the dental records."
Elena turned toward him.
"Records supplied by Price Medical Holdings."
Victor's voice hardened.
"This woman is unstable."
Elena opened the leather case and removed a thick sealed envelope.
"That was the diagnosis you purchased fourteen years ago."
A murmur rolled through the guests.
Celeste stepped forward with sudden confidence.
"Elena suffered a breakdown after her accident."
"There was no accident."
Elena handed the envelope to James.
Inside were photographs, copies of medical intake forms, bank transfers, and a death certificate bearing Elena's full name.
Ava saw the date.
It was three days after her eleventh birthday.
Elena pointed to another page.
"That is the private facility where they kept me under a false identity."
James's hands began to tremble.
Ava had never seen that happen.
"Why?"
Elena looked toward Victor.
"Because I discovered that Victor Price was laundering pension money through construction companies he controlled."
Victor laughed, but nobody joined him.
"Absurd."
"I prepared evidence for federal investigators."
Elena continued before he could interrupt.
"The night before I was supposed to meet them, my car was forced off the road."
James closed his eyes for one second.
"They said it burned."
"A different woman was in the vehicle when it burned."
Ava felt cold despite the warm room.
"Who?"
Elena's face changed.
"A nurse named Rebecca Lane, and her family deserves the truth too."
Nolan shook his head violently.
"This is insane."
Elena looked at him.
"You were sixteen when your father brought you to the facility the first time."
Nolan stopped breathing.
Ava slowly turned toward him.
"You knew she was alive?"
Nolan's eyes moved toward Victor before he answered.
That single glance told Ava everything.
She took a step backward as though he had struck her again.
"You knew."
Nolan finally found his voice.
"Ava, it wasn't like that."
James moved between them.
"Do not say her name."
Elena reached into the case again.
"The reason Nolan dated Ava was not an accident either."
Ava stared at her.
Elena placed one final document on the ruined birthday table.
At the top was the name of a trust Ava had never heard of.
May you like
Her own name appeared beneath it.
The value printed beside the trust was forty-eight million dollars.
