Chapter 10 - Beneath the Nursery
The hidden room could be reached only through a panel under the nursery fireplace.
Samuel, Catherine, Ortiz, and Arthur entered together.
Lucian insisted on joining despite his injuries.
The staircase descended beneath the foundation into air colder than the winter outside.
At the bottom stood an iron door with no modern lock.
The key from Thomas's envelope turned smoothly.
Inside, they found film reels, ledgers, and photographs dating back more than fifty years.
The oldest images showed Malcolm Reeve as a young legal clerk beside Samuel's grandfather.
Others showed Daria before her marriage, standing near men whose careers later collapsed in scandal.
Arthur opened a ledger and found payments made in his own name.
"I never received this money."
Reeve had used household employees as false beneficiaries to move funds.
Daria had not invented the network.
She had inherited it from Reeve, who served Samuel's grandfather before advising Thomas.
The family attorney was the architect.
Daria was his most successful student.
Catherine found a photograph of Blackthorn House taken in 1978.
On the back, someone had written REHABILITATION SITE B.
Blackthorn had existed long before her kidnapping.
It had been used to detain inconvenient heirs, witnesses, mistresses, and employees who threatened the family's image.
Samuel felt sick.
His fortune had been protected by generations of disappearance.
"We release everything," he said.
Lucian looked at him sharply.
"That will destroy the company."
"Then it deserves to be destroyed."
Arthur disagreed.
Thousands of employees had no connection to the crimes.
Destroying Kincaid Enterprises would punish workers while the true offenders hid assets elsewhere.
Catherine proposed another path.
They would separate the legitimate businesses from the criminal trusts, repay victims, and place controlling shares into an independent foundation.
Samuel would surrender personal claim to most of the inheritance.
He agreed before she finished speaking.
Ortiz photographed every record.
A faint clicking sound came from the wall.
Catherine recognized it first.
"Timer."
Smoke began leaking beneath the door.
Reeve had wired the room to burn if opened.
The iron door slammed shut when Samuel pulled it.
The lock had engaged automatically.
Flames appeared behind the shelving.
The old film ignited almost instantly.
Ortiz called for help, but the stone blocked the signal.
Lucian found an air vent too narrow for an adult.
Noah could have fit through it, but Noah was safe at the hospital.
Catherine examined the map.
Thomas had drawn a second line leading toward the greenhouse.
The passage was hidden behind a wall of ledgers.
Samuel and Lucian tore the shelves down while Arthur wrapped wet cloth around Catherine's face.
The wall behind them contained a rusted wheel.
It would not turn.
Smoke filled the room.
Arthur collapsed.
Lucian braced his injured shoulder against the wheel and pushed.
Samuel joined him.
The mechanism moved one inch.
Then another.
The wall opened into a drainage tunnel.
They dragged Arthur through as the archive room erupted behind them.
They emerged beneath the greenhouse just before the foundation shook.
Most of the evidence had already been photographed, but the original ledgers burned.
Reeve had attempted to erase the past and kill everyone who could explain it.
Ortiz's phone regained signal.
A live broadcast was playing on every major news network.
Malcolm Reeve stood inside Kincaid Tower, surrounded by armed private security.
He claimed Samuel and Catherine had murdered Daria's associates, fabricated the kidnapping, and seized a company through fraud.
Behind him, employees were being held on the executive floor.
Reeve held a detonator.
"At noon," he announced, "the truth about the Kincaid family will die with its final heir."
The camera moved.
Penelope's empty stroller stood beside him.
Samuel looked at Catherine in terror.
Catherine checked the tracking bracelet hidden inside the baby's blanket.
The signal showed Penelope was still at the hospital.
Reeve did not have the child.
He wanted them to believe he did.
Then a second signal appeared.
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It came from the top floor of Kincaid Tower.
The device belonged to Noah.
