Chapter 13 - The Butler's Secret
Thomas Bell, the Mercer family's seventy-year-old butler, stood behind Evelyn holding an antique shotgun.
His hands trembled, but the barrel did not.
"Drop it, ma'am."
Evelyn laughed. "You won't shoot me."
"No," Thomas said. "But Detective Brooks might."
Brooks stepped through the opposite door with her weapon raised.
Evelyn finally lowered the pistol.
She was arrested beside the dead vines she had planned to turn into a funeral pyre.
Caleb clung to Maya while Adrian pressed his forehead to his son's.
For the first time that day, Maya believed the nightmare might end.
Then Thomas pulled Adrian aside.
"Sir, there's something else."
He had worked for Adrian's father before Evelyn took control of the estate. Years earlier, he had seen similar schemes: altered trusts, frightened employees, manufactured accidents.
"Your father's death," Thomas said, "was not a heart attack."
Adrian stared at him.
His father had died twelve years earlier after collapsing in the wine cellar.
Thomas had found him first.
"He was alive when I reached him," Thomas whispered. "Your mother ordered me upstairs before the ambulance came."
"Why didn't you tell anyone?"
Thomas's eyes filled with shame. "Because she threatened my family."
He handed Adrian an old brass key.
"Your father kept a safe behind the cellar wall. Evelyn never found it."
Inside the safe, they discovered a handwritten ledger.
Names. Dates. Payments.
And beside the final entry was a note in Adrian's father's handwriting.
IF SOMETHING HAPPENS TO ME, EVELYN KNOWS WHY.
May you like
Brooks turned the page.
The last name listed was Marcus Vale.
