Chapter 6 - Someone Was Still Inside the House
Camille stared at the photograph for a long time.
Vincent waited.
Marcus closed the hospital room door.
“Who is her father?” Vincent asked again.
Camille's voice was quiet.
“Why does it matter?”
“Because a man who nearly killed me has been photographing your daughter.”
“That doesn't mean—”
“He wrote, ‘She doesn't know who.’”
Camille looked down.
Adeline was asleep again in Clara's arms.
Camille whispered, “His name was Gabriel Price.”
Marcus went completely still.
“Price?”
Camille nodded.
Vincent understood first.
“Daniel's brother.”
“Yes.”
The room became silent.
Camille sat.
“I met Gabriel five years ago. He wasn't involved with Daniel's work. At least that's what he told me.”
“What happened to him?”
“He died before Adeline was born.”
“How?”
“Car accident.”
Marcus asked, “Did Daniel know about Adeline?”
“I didn't think so.”
Vincent stared at the photograph.
Now Daniel's interest made sense.
Adeline wasn't a random child.
She was his niece.
Camille wiped her eyes.
“Gabriel wanted nothing to do with his brother. He said Daniel had become obsessed with power, money, loyalty. Gabriel wanted out.”
“Did he know about Raymond?” Marcus asked.
“I don't know.”
“Did he leave you anything?”
Camille hesitated.
Vincent saw it.
“What?”
“A key.”
Marcus leaned forward.
“To what?”
“I don't know.”
Camille explained.
Weeks before Gabriel died, he had given her a small brass key.
“If anything happens to me,” he had said, “keep this until Addie is old enough.”
At the time, Camille had thought he was being dramatic.
After his death, grief had buried the memory.
“Where is it?”
“At the estate.”
Vincent stood.
Marcus immediately said, “No.”
Vincent looked at him.
“I'm going.”
“You can barely walk.”
“Then I'll walk slowly.”
Camille said, “I'm going too.”
“No.”
She folded her arms.
“You don't get to tell me no.”
Vincent almost smiled.
“I see where Adeline gets it.”
Three hours later, they returned to the Castellano estate under heavy security.
The house felt different.
Quiet.
Suspicious.
Every corridor seemed to contain a secret.
Camille led them to the small apartment she shared with Adeline in the staff wing.
She opened a wooden jewelry box.
Beneath photographs and old letters was a tiny brass key.
Marcus examined it.
“No markings.”
Camille removed another item.
A note.
Gabriel's handwriting.
WHEN SHE IS OLD ENOUGH TO ASK ABOUT ME, TAKE HER TO WHERE WE FIRST MET.
Camille closed her eyes.
Vincent asked, “Where did you meet?”
“The old chapel near Bayou Rouge.”
Marcus called a security team.
The chapel had been abandoned for decades.
They arrived before sunrise.
Behind a loose stone near the altar, the key opened a small metal box.
Inside were documents.
A flash drive.
And a letter addressed to Camille.
She opened it.
Gabriel had known.
He knew Raymond and Daniel were moving money through companies tied to the Castellano organization.
He had collected evidence.
He had intended to give it to Vincent.
But he feared Daniel would discover him first.
The final paragraph made Camille cry.
If something happens to me, don't let Daniel near our daughter. He will tell himself that blood gives him a right to her. It doesn't. You are her home. Keep her far away from the life my brother chose.
Vincent read the documents.
They were enough.
Bank records.
Transfer authorizations.
Audio files.
Raymond had built the financial operation.
Daniel had protected it.
Gabriel had discovered it.
And Gabriel's “accident” suddenly looked very different.
Marcus called federal investigators.
Vincent didn't object.
That surprised Camille.
“You're giving them everything?”
“Yes.”
“Even records that could hurt your companies?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
Vincent looked toward the chapel doors.
“Because this ends.”
For years, he had believed power meant controlling problems privately.
Family handled family.
Enemies handled enemies.
Police stayed outside.
But that world had nearly killed him.
It had kidnapped Camille.
It had put Adeline in danger.
Vincent finally understood that protecting a family sometimes meant destroying the system that had endangered it.
His phone rang.
Anthony.
“We found Raymond.”
“Where?”
“At the estate.”
Vincent frowned.
“What?”
“He never left.”
Marcus stared.
Anthony continued.
“There is an old service room behind the wine cellar. He'd been hiding there.”
“Why?”
“He says Daniel threatened him.”
“Keep him there.”
“We are.”
“And Anthony?”
“Yes?”
“Don't trust anyone.”
The line went dead.
Vincent looked at Marcus.
“We go back.”
When they reached the estate, Raymond sat in the library surrounded by security.
He looked twenty years older.
Vincent entered.
Raymond stared at his bandages.
“You should be dead.”
The room froze.
Vincent smiled without humor.
“Interesting greeting.”
Raymond realized his mistake.
“I meant—”
“I know what you meant.”
Marcus placed Gabriel's documents on the table.
Raymond's face collapsed.
“Where did you get those?”
“That answers one question.”
Vincent sat across from him.
“You killed Gabriel Price.”
“No.”
“You stole forty-three million dollars.”
Raymond said nothing.
“You worked with Daniel.”
Raymond's hands trembled.
“At first.”
“And then?”
“He became impossible to control.”
“You staged his death.”
“He staged it himself.”
“Why?”
“Because you were getting suspicious.”
Vincent leaned forward.
“And Gabriel?”
Raymond looked away.
“Daniel handled Gabriel.”
Camille made a broken sound.
Vincent's face hardened.
“What does that mean?”
“You know what it means.”
Camille turned away.
Marcus placed a hand on her shoulder.
Raymond continued.
“Daniel wanted the documents Gabriel had collected. He never found them.”
“And now he knows Camille did.”
Vincent stood.
Suddenly, the lights went out.
Darkness swallowed the library.
Marcus drew his weapon.
“Everybody down!”
A crash sounded upstairs.
Then an alarm.
Vincent's heart stopped.
“Adeline.”
Camille screamed her daughter's name.
They ran.
The emergency lights came on.
Red illumination filled the corridor.
Clara emerged from the staff wing.
“She's gone!”
Camille stopped.
“What?”
“The window was open. I turned around for one minute—”
Camille ran past her.
Adeline's room was empty.
Albert lay on the floor.
The window stood open.
Marcus looked outside.
A ladder rested against the wall.
Security flooded the grounds.
Vincent picked up the stuffed alligator.
Something crackled inside.
A phone.
Marcus removed it.
The screen lit.
One message.
COME TO THE BOATHOUSE.
NO SECURITY.
Vincent stared toward the lake.
Daniel had finally stopped hiding.
May you like
And this time he had taken the one person Vincent Castellano would burn his entire empire to bring home.
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