Chapter 5 - Beneath the Mercer Estate
At 11:51 P.M., Caroline learned there were exactly nine minutes between discovering her father might have been imprisoned for twenty-eight years and walking willingly toward the man who may have put him there.
"Tell me how to get underneath the estate."
Lillian Vale stared at her.
"No."
Caroline stepped closer.
"Holloway has Rebecca. He has Douglas. Juliette is there. And if you're telling the truth, Adrian Vale is somewhere beneath that house."
"Which is exactly why you cannot go through the main entrance."
Marcus looked at Lillian.
"You know another way."
Lillian's silence confirmed it.
"Show us," he said.
She shook her head.
"I spent twenty-eight years staying alive because Douglas never knew how much I knew."
Caroline's expression hardened.
"And my father spent those twenty-eight years where?"
Lillian looked away.
Caroline grabbed her arm.
"Where?"
"I don't know if Adrian is still alive."
"You just said Douglas kept him alive."
"I said he did. I didn't say I know his condition now."
"Then help me find out."
Lillian studied Caroline's scarred face.
Something in her resistance broke.
"There is a service tunnel."
Marcus immediately asked, "Entrance?"
"Old wine-storage building on the eastern boundary."
Caroline knew it.
A stone structure hidden behind the vineyards.
As children, she and Juliette had been forbidden to enter it.
Douglas claimed the floor was unstable.
Another lie.
"How long to reach it?" Marcus asked.
"Seven minutes if we drive."
Caroline looked at the burner phone.
11:52.
"Let's go."
---
They left Evelyn behind.
Caroline hated doing it, but Evelyn's injured ankle had worsened after the explosion, and someone needed to preserve Eleanor's files if they didn't return.
Marcus gave her his backup phone.
"If we're not back by one, send everything."
"To whom?"
"Everyone."
Police.
Press.
Federal investigators.
Anyone who might make the evidence impossible to bury again.
Lillian drove.
Caroline sat beside her while Marcus occupied the back seat, checking his pistol.
"Why didn't you tell anyone?" Caroline asked.
Lillian kept her eyes on the road.
"I did."
"When?"
"Twenty-eight years ago."
"What happened?"
"The detective assigned to Adrian's disappearance disappeared himself."
Marcus stopped checking the weapon.
"Name?"
"Thomas Reed."
Marcus stared at her.
"Reed didn't disappear."
Lillian glanced at the mirror.
"What?"
"He died."
"When?"
"Twenty-six years ago."
"How?"
Marcus hesitated.
"Suicide."
Lillian gave a hollow laugh.
"Thomas Reed would never have killed himself."
Caroline looked between them.
"Another person."
Neither answered.
"How many people have died because of this?"
Lillian's voice became quiet.
"More than you know."
They reached the eastern edge of the Mercer property at 11:57.
The old wine building appeared between rows of vines.
Lillian stopped the car behind it.
They ran inside.
Caroline's lungs burned.
Her damaged throat felt as though invisible hands were tightening around it.
Marcus noticed.
"Can you keep going?"
"Don't ask me that again."
Lillian moved several empty wine racks aside.
Behind them was an iron door.
She entered a six-digit code.
Marcus watched carefully.
"How do you know the code?"
"It hasn't changed."
The door unlocked.
A narrow concrete staircase descended underground.
Caroline looked at the darkness.
Somewhere above them stood the mansion where she had attended Christmas parties, charity dinners, and family celebrations.
And beneath it...
Possibly her father.
"Midnight," Marcus said.
Caroline's burner phone vibrated.
**YOU'RE LATE.**
Then:
**ONE MINUTE.**
Lillian switched on the tunnel lights.
"Move."
They descended.
The passage was far larger than Caroline expected.
Not a wine cellar.
A facility.
Electrical cables ran along reinforced walls.
Security cameras had been installed at intervals.
Some were new.
Marcus shot the first camera.
The sound echoed.
Caroline glared at him.
"Subtle."
"They already know we're coming."
They reached a junction.
Three passages.
Lillian pointed left.
"That leads beneath the main house."
"Right?"
"Old emergency exit."
"And straight?"
Lillian hesitated.
"The holding rooms."
Caroline went straight.
Marcus caught her.
"Holloway is expecting you at the house."
"My father isn't in the house."
"You don't know that."
"I know Douglas."
Marcus frowned.
Caroline explained.
"If he built this place, he'd keep his secrets as far away from his family as possible."
Lillian stared at her.
"You think like him."
Caroline hated the words.
They continued.
One door.
Empty.
Second.
Medical equipment.
Third.
A bed with leather restraints.
Caroline stopped.
The room smelled of antiseptic.
Her stomach twisted.
"This is where they kept him?"
Lillian entered.
On the wall were marks.
Hundreds.
Groups of five.
Someone had counted days.
Years.
Caroline touched them.
Then Marcus noticed something beneath the bed.
A metal tray.
He pulled it out.
Medication bottles.
Caroline read one label.
Patient:
**A. VALE.**
Her knees nearly failed.
"He's alive."
"Or was recently," Marcus said.
The prescription date was only two months old.
A sound came from farther down the corridor.
Metal striking metal.
Once.
Twice.
Then again.
Caroline ran.
"Caroline!"
She ignored Marcus.
At the end of the corridor was a steel door.
A tiny reinforced window sat at eye level.
Caroline looked through it.
Darkness.
"Hello?"
Nothing.
Then movement.
A man stepped into the faint light.
Caroline stopped breathing.
He was thin.
Terribly thin.
Long gray hair fell to his shoulders.
A beard covered most of his face.
But the eyes...
Caroline had seen them in photographs.
Adrian Vale.
Alive.
He stared at her.
His expression changed from confusion to disbelief.
Then he approached the glass.
Caroline raised her hand.
He raised his.
Their palms met through the barrier.
"Adrian?"
The man's lips trembled.
He looked at her scars.
Then at her eyes.
He whispered something.
Caroline couldn't hear.
"What?"
He repeated it.
Marcus arrived.
"Caroline, move."
She didn't.
Adrian suddenly began pounding the glass.
"No!"
His voice barely penetrated the door.
"No!"
Caroline leaned closer.
"It's okay."
Adrian shook his head violently.
"RUN!"
Caroline froze.
Marcus turned.
A red light appeared above the corridor.
Alarm.
Steel doors began closing behind them.
Lillian screamed.
"It's a lockdown!"
Marcus ran toward the nearest closing barrier.
Too late.
It slammed shut.
They were trapped.
The lights changed from white to red.
A speaker crackled overhead.
Chief Holloway's voice filled the corridor.
"Welcome home, Caroline."
She looked upward.
"Holloway!"
"You've always had your mother's curiosity."
"Let them go!"
"Which mother?"
Caroline clenched her jaw.
Rebecca.
Eleanor.
Even now, he was manipulating her.
"What do you want?"
"The file."
"You already know what's in it."
"No. Douglas knows what's in it. That's why we're all in this unfortunate situation."
Caroline frowned.
"You're not working for Douglas."
Lillian looked at her.
Marcus slowly raised his eyes toward the speaker.
Holloway laughed.
"Finally."
Caroline thought of Douglas tied to the chair.
"Then who are you working for?"
"Come upstairs and perhaps you'll find out."
A mechanical hiss began.
Marcus looked toward the ceiling.
Ventilation grilles.
"Gas."
Lillian covered her mouth.
Marcus grabbed Caroline.
"We need that door open."
Adrian was already working from inside.
He removed something from beneath his mattress.
A metal tool.
Caroline watched him open a panel beside his door.
"How does he know how to do that?"
Lillian whispered:
"Because Adrian designed this facility."
The lock clicked.
The steel door opened.
Adrian grabbed Caroline and pulled her inside.
Marcus and Lillian followed.
Adrian slammed the door.
The gas began filling the corridor outside.
For several seconds nobody spoke.
Caroline looked at the man who might be her biological father.
Adrian touched her face.
Not the unscarred side.
The burned side.
His fingers trembled.
"Caroline."
She swallowed.
"You know me?"
Tears filled his eyes.
"I knew you before you were born."
Caroline almost collapsed.
"You are my father?"
Adrian's expression changed.
"No."
Caroline stared at him.
Again.
Another lie collapsing.
"But Eleanor's recording—"
"I know what Eleanor believed."
"What does that mean?"
Adrian turned toward Lillian.
"Lily."
His sister began crying.
She embraced him.
Twenty-eight years vanished in one broken moment.
Marcus looked away.
Caroline didn't.
She had no patience left for reunions.
"If you're not my father, who is?"
Adrian slowly released Lillian.
"Douglas used my genetic material."
Caroline frowned.
"Then—"
"But it wasn't used to create you."
Silence.
"It created another child."
Caroline felt cold.
"Who?"
Before Adrian could answer, the cell's television switched on.
The live video returned.
Rebecca.
Douglas.
Juliette.
But now another chair had been added.
Empty.
Holloway entered the frame.
"Caroline, you've found our oldest guest."
Adrian's face hardened.
"Holloway."
"Bring Adrian upstairs."
Caroline stepped toward the screen.
"No."
Holloway smiled.
"Then I'll begin with Rebecca."
He placed a gun against Rebecca's head.
Caroline's heart stopped.
"Wait!"
"Five minutes."
The screen went black.
Adrian grabbed Caroline's shoulders.
"Listen to me. Holloway doesn't want you."
"He seems very interested in me."
"He wants the Mercer succession documents."
"I don't have them."
"Yes, you do."
Caroline stared at him.
"The medical file?"
"No."
Adrian touched the scarred side of her neck.
"You've had them for years."
Caroline pulled away.
"What are you talking about?"
Adrian looked at Marcus.
"The hospital."
Marcus's expression changed.
"What hospital?"
"The one that treated her after the fire."
Adrian looked back at Caroline.
"Someone placed something inside you."
Caroline's stomach turned.
"What?"
"Before you regained consciousness."
Marcus immediately looked toward the long surgical scar running below Caroline's left ear.
Adrian pointed at it.
"Douglas couldn't risk carrying the evidence himself."
Caroline touched her neck.
"No."
"I overheard him and Holloway."
"When?"
"Years ago."
Caroline's breathing became shallow.
"What did they put inside me?"
"A storage device."
Marcus stepped closer.
"Containing what?"
Adrian's voice lowered.
"Proof that the Mercer fortune never belonged to Douglas."
Caroline stared at him.
"Then who does it belong to?"
Adrian's eyes filled with sadness.
"That's why you need to understand who you really are."
He took Caroline's hand.
"Rebecca Hale is your biological mother."
"I know."
"But Douglas isn't your father."
"I know that too."
"Neither am I."
Caroline's patience snapped.
"THEN WHO IS?"
Adrian looked toward Lillian.
She shook her head.
"Adrian, don't."
"She deserves the truth."
"Not here."
"There is nowhere safe anymore."
He turned back to Caroline.
"The embryo Douglas secretly created using my genetic material became a child."
"Who?"
"Juliette."
Caroline went completely still.
Juliette was Adrian's daughter.
Then Caroline realized what that meant.
"If Juliette is yours..."
Adrian nodded.
"You and Juliette aren't biological sisters."
Caroline could barely process it.
"Then my father?"
Adrian took a breath.
"Rebecca became pregnant naturally three months before the procedure."
Caroline's world narrowed to his next words.
"By whom?"
Adrian looked directly into her eyes.
"Chief Richard Holloway."
Caroline stopped breathing.
"No."
"Rebecca discovered she was pregnant after Douglas had already promised Eleanor a child. Douglas saw an opportunity."
"No."
"He falsified the records."
"Stop."
"He raised Holloway's daughter as his own."
Caroline stepped backward.
"No."
Marcus stared at Adrian.
"Why would Holloway allow that?"
Adrian's expression darkened.
"He didn't know."
Caroline's voice broke.
"Does he know now?"
Adrian looked toward the black television screen.
"That's why Rebecca is still alive."
The screen suddenly illuminated again.
Holloway appeared alone.
No prisoners.
He was holding a pistol.
But now his expression was different.
No smile.
No performance.
He looked directly into the camera.
"Adrian has always been an excellent liar."
Caroline's blood chilled.
Holloway leaned toward the lens.
"If he just told you I'm your father, ask him one question."
Adrian went pale.
Caroline slowly turned toward him.
"What question?"
Holloway answered through the speaker.
"Ask Adrian Vale why Rebecca Hale tried to kill him the night you were born."