Chapter 5: Marina’s Last Recording
Conrad led them into the old boiler passage while the guards forced open the laundry-room door.
“Where can we go?” Evelyn asked.
“The Aurelia ballroom,” Conrad said.
“Two hundred guests are attending Victor’s foundation dinner.”
Adrien stared at him.
“You want us to walk into his event?”
“Victor controls private rooms.
He cannot control two hundred phones.”
Rose stopped beside an iron ladder.
“First, we need the complete recording.”
Conrad inserted the second memory card.
Marina appeared on the screen with a folder pressed against her chest.
“Victor, these transfers came from Clara’s trust.”
Victor stepped into view.
“They came from accounts I managed.”
“You moved the money into your foundation.”
“My foundation kept this hotel alive.”
“You bought silence with it.”
Victor reached for the folder, but Marina pulled it away.
“You photographed Adrien for twenty years,” she said.
“You watched him marry me.
You watched our children being born.”
“I protected my son from people who wanted his property.”
“You protected yourself from the day he learned it was his.”
The image shook.
A child whimpered behind the camera.
Adrien covered his mouth.
“One of the triplets recorded this.”
Lila nodded.
“Mommy gave me the phone.”
The video continued.
Victor pointed toward the cellar door.
“Call Adrien.
Tell him you’re leaving.”
“No.”
“If you refuse, I will make sure he loses the children while he is grieving you.”
Adrien turned away from the screen.
Noah caught his sleeve.
“Daddy?”
Adrien knelt and held him.
“I believe your mother.
I believe all of you.”
The recording ended with a crash and Marina shouting, “Run to Rose!”
“The final minute is missing,” Conrad said.
“Victor has it,” Rose replied.
“He took Marina’s handbag before the ambulance arrived.”
Adrien stood.
“Ambulance?
I was told her car left the road.”
Rose looked at the children.
“They were given a false story.”
“You tell me now.”
“Victor cornered Marina on the cellar stairs.
She fell.
She was alive when he carried her through the loading entrance.”
Adrien seized the railing.
“Did he call for help?”
“Not for forty-three minutes.”
Evelyn faced Rose.
“Say the whole truth.”
Rose’s voice broke.
“Marina might have survived if help had come immediately.”
Adrien struck the wall with his palm, then sank onto the bottom step.
Lila stood before him.
“Mommy called your name.”
He pulled her into his arms.
Noah and Sophie joined them, their heads pressed against his shoulders.
“I should have been there.”
“No,” Rose said.
“That is the lie Victor needs you to believe.”
“He called me that night.
He said Marina had abandoned us.”
“And you searched for her until he produced the report,” Evelyn said.
“He deceived you too.”
Footsteps echoed from the passage above.
Conrad checked his phone.
“Victor has obtained an emergency family order.
It says Adrien is emotionally unstable and the children are in danger.”
Adrien looked up.
“Based on whose statement?”
“His personal physician and three hotel employees.”
“I’ve never met his physician.”
“You don’t need to.
Victor needs only enough paper to separate you from the children tonight.”
Sophie clung to Adrien’s coat.
“Don’t let Grandpa take us.”
“He won’t.”
A woman’s voice came from the top of the ladder.
“Mr.
Belandi, officers are entering the kitchen.”
Rose stared upward.
“That is Margaret Price.
She managed the household when Adrien was a boy.”
Margaret climbed down carrying a thick envelope.
“Victor sent me to find you.”
Adrien stepped between her and the children.
“Then go back and tell him you failed.”
“I failed your mother thirty-four years ago.” She held out the envelope.
“I won’t fail her grandson.”
Inside was the original trust, stamped and witnessed, along with a small cassette.
“Clara gave these to me before she d!ed,” Margaret said.
“Victor believed I destroyed them.”
“Why keep them this long?”
“Cowardice first.
Shame afterward.”
A radio crackled above them.
“Mrs.
Price,” Victor’s voice said, “bring me the children, or your son loses everything.”
Margaret removed the radio battery and dropped it into the boiler drain.
“My son is sixty-two,” she said.
“It is time he earned his own living.”
Conrad almost smiled, but Rose raised one finger.
Someone was unlocking the lower passage door.
Victor stepped through with the police chief beside him.
He looked at the envelope in Adrien’s hands and smiled.
May you like
“Thank you, Margaret,” Victor said.
“You have finally brought me every copy in one place.”
