Chapter 5 - What the Twins Had Seen
“Lucas!”
Vincent's voice echoed through the second floor.
No answer.
“Leo!”
Nothing.
Security spread through the mansion.
Every exterior gate was locked.
Blake's vehicle remained near the service entrance, but Blake himself was nowhere to be found.
The boys had left us one clue.
The toy car.
I picked it up.
It was the black one Lucas had raced across the floor on my first day.
Then I remembered something.
Lucas liked hiding his cars.
During our second afternoon together, he had told me there was a “secret garage” where his father could never find them.
At the time, I'd assumed he meant a toy chest.
“Vincent.”
He turned.
“Where did the boys play before they became sick?”
“Everywhere.”
“Favorite place?”
He thought.
“The library.”
We ran downstairs.
The library was enormous.
Dark shelves stretched nearly to the ceiling.
I called softly.
“Lucas? Leo? It's Claire.”
Silence.
Then a tiny sound.
A wheel rolling across wood.
I followed it.
A gold toy car emerged from beneath a heavy curtain.
Vincent reached it first.
Behind the curtain was a narrow service door.
He opened it.
Lucas and Leo were crouched inside a shallow storage alcove.
Vincent dropped to his knees.
The boys threw themselves at him.
For several seconds, the feared Vincent Moretti simply held his children.
“Why did you hide?”
Lucas looked toward me.
“Dr. Blake came upstairs.”
Leo nodded.
“He told us Dad wanted us back in our old rooms.”
Vincent's face changed.
“I never said that.”
“We know,” Lucas whispered.
“How?”
“Because Claire said we weren't going back.”
I crouched beside them.
“Did Dr. Blake see you?”
Leo shook his head.
“We ran.”
“Did he say anything else?”
The twins looked at each other.
Then Lucas said, “He was talking to somebody.”
“What did you hear?”
“He said the room was empty.”
My pulse quickened.
“What room?”
“Our old room.”
Vincent stood.
“Marco.”
Security converged on the children's bedrooms.
Blake wasn't there.
But someone had opened the ventilation grate.
The brass cover was lying on the floor.
Behind it, part of the ductwork had been removed.
Whatever had been hidden there was gone.
Blake hadn't come for the boys.
He had come for evidence.
Security found him ten minutes later near the west service staircase.
He didn't resist.
Vincent wanted to confront him immediately.
Instead, I insisted the twins be taken somewhere safe and the authorities already involved in the environmental investigation be contacted.
This was no longer a family mystery.
There was evidence.
There were children involved.
There had to be accountability outside Vincent's world.
Blake sat in the downstairs study under supervision.
When Vincent entered, the doctor looked almost bored.
“You've made a serious mistake.”
Vincent remained standing.
“No. I made one eleven months ago.”
Blake looked at me.
“This woman has filled your head with paranoia.”
I placed Peter's photograph on the table.
Blake's face changed.
Only slightly.
But enough.
“You recognize it.”
“No.”
“You didn't even look.”
He said nothing.
Vincent placed Isabella's letter beside it.
This time Blake couldn't hide his reaction.
“Where did you get that?”
Vincent leaned forward.
“My wife knew.”
Blake stared at the letter.
Then something unexpected happened.
He laughed.
Not loudly.
Not confidently.
It sounded exhausted.
“You still don't understand.”
“Then explain.”
“You think I started this?”
“Did you?”
Blake looked at Vincent.
“My father built the system your family used for decades. Financial structures. Medical foundations. Private accounts. Your father knew.”
Adrian stepped into the room.
“Our father died twelve years ago.”
“Yes.”
Blake nodded.
“And left behind enough secrets to destroy all of you.”
“But Lucas and Leo?” I asked. “They're seven.”
For the first time, Blake looked ashamed.
“That wasn't supposed to happen.”
Vincent's hands tightened.
“What wasn't?”
Blake closed his eyes.
“The exposure was supposed to be minimal.”
Vincent took one step toward him.
I moved between them.
“Let him finish.”
Blake looked at me.
“Your mother understood more than you know.”
“Leave her out of this.”
“I can't.”
He explained that Evelyn Morgan had once worked privately with Isabella after Isabella became suspicious about recurring illnesses among people connected to the old foundation.
My mother hadn't simply been a nurse.
She had helped Isabella gather records.
“Isabella discovered someone was using controlled environmental exposure to create symptoms that resembled natural illness.”
My stomach turned.
“For what purpose?”
“To pressure people. Remove them from negotiations. Make them appear unstable or medically unfit. Sometimes simply frighten them.”
“And Isabella?”
Blake looked at Vincent.
“She discovered too much.”
Vincent went pale.
“Did you kill my wife?”
“No.”
“Did your father?”
Blake's silence lasted too long.
“I don't know.”
Vincent's voice broke.
“Four years, Harrison.”
“I don't know.”
That sounded genuine.
But one question remained.
“Why the twins?” I asked.
Blake looked toward the floor.
“Because someone needed Vincent distracted.”
“Who?”
“I never met them.”
Adrian scoffed.
“You expect us to believe that?”
“I received instructions.”
“From where?”
“Encrypted accounts.”
“Money?”
“Yes.”
“How much?”
Blake didn't answer.
Vincent did.
“Enough to sell two seven-year-old boys.”
Blake looked ashamed.
“I told them the exposure had to stop.”
“When?”
“When the boys became significantly weaker.”
“Eleven months ago?” I asked.
“No.”
He looked at me.
“Six weeks ago.”
Six weeks.
The same time my name appeared in Blake's records.
“Why were you researching me?”
“Because the person paying me sent your name.”
The room went silent.
“Why?”
“I was told that if Claire Morgan ever entered the Moretti estate, the operation had been compromised.”
Vincent looked at me.
My mother's connection to Isabella had made me a threat before I even knew the Moretti family.
“What were you ordered to do if I arrived?”
Blake swallowed.
“Leave.”
“Then why didn't you?”
“Because I wanted to know who sent you.”
“Nobody sent me.”
“Someone did.”
Mrs. Harper appeared in the doorway.
“I did.”
Blake stared at her.
Then he laughed bitterly.
“Of course.”
Mrs. Harper stepped inside.
“Isabella trusted Evelyn. I trusted her daughter.”
I looked at her.
“Why now?”
“Because Lucas collapsed six weeks ago.”
Her eyes filled with tears.
“And I remembered what Isabella told me before she died.”
“What?”
Mrs. Harper looked toward Vincent.
“She said if the same sickness ever returned, I was to find Evelyn Morgan.”
“My mother was already dead.”
“I discovered that. So I found you.”
That explained my arrival.
But it didn't explain the mastermind.
Blake was questioned further.
He gave investigators account numbers, encrypted communication records, payment routes, and access information.
The financial trail passed through several shell entities.
Eventually, one name surfaced.
Not Adrian.
Not Mrs. Harper.
Not Raymond.
A woman.
Elena Rossi.
Vincent stared at the name.
Adrian sat down.
I looked between them.
“Who is she?”
Neither brother answered.
“Vincent?”
His face had become pale.
Finally, Adrian spoke.
“Elena was Isabella's sister.”
My stomach dropped.
“Lucas and Leo's aunt?”
“Yes.”
“Why would she hurt them?”
Vincent looked at the old photograph of Isabella on his desk.
“Because she believes I killed her sister.”
And suddenly the person behind the twins' suffering wasn't a stranger trying to steal Vincent Moretti's fortune.
She was family.
A woman who had apparently spent four years believing Vincent was responsible for Isabella's death.
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And if that was true, then Lucas and Leo had become pawns in a revenge plan built on a secret none of us fully understood.
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