Chapter 12 - The Fire
The estate caught fire at 2:17 the next morning.
I woke on the couch with Noah beside me in a portable bassinet.
Smoke filled the hallway.
The alarm never sounded.
I grabbed Noah.
“Elena.”
She was already awake.
“Back stairs.”
We moved toward the east corridor.
Flames were climbing from the library.
The same room where the financial evidence had been stored before investigators removed most of it.
Most.
Not all.
“Where’s Margaret?”
Reed shouted from downstairs.
An officer answered.
“Her room is empty.”
My stomach dropped.
We reached the courtyard.
Fire crews arrived within minutes.
Everyone was accounted for except my mother.
Then I saw movement through the second-floor window.
Margaret.
She was inside my father’s old office.
The flames were spreading toward her.
I handed Noah to Elena.
“Daniel.”
“I’m getting her.”
“She may have started this.”
“She’s still my mother.”
I ran back inside.
Heat swallowed the corridor.
Smoke erased everything beyond a few feet.
I wrapped my shirt over my nose and climbed.
My father’s office door was locked.
“Mom.”
No answer.
I kicked it once.
Twice.
The frame broke.
Margaret was on the floor.
Conscious.
Barely.
A metal wastebasket burned beside the desk.
Papers were scattered everywhere.
I dragged her toward the doorway.
She resisted.
“Leave me.”
“No.”
“Daniel.”
“Get up.”
“I destroyed everything.”
I looked toward the desk.
A laptop lay smashed.
But the investigators already had the digital copies.
“You destroyed nothing.”
Her face collapsed.
For the first time, she seemed to understand.
Emily had beaten them.
The evidence was already out.
I pulled her into the hallway.
A section of ceiling crashed behind us.
She screamed.
We reached the stairs.
Firefighters met us halfway.
Outside, paramedics took her.
Reed approached me.
“Arson investigator found accelerant in the office.”
I looked toward the ambulance.
“She started it.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
Reed held up an evidence bag.
Inside was a half-burned sheet.
A handwritten note.
Margaret had written it.
Daniel,
I told myself I was protecting this family.
The truth is that I was protecting the version of myself that could never admit I had failed.
Caleb was my failure.
Emily was my failure.
And you were the son I punished for becoming the man your father believed you could be.
I read the next line.
My hands went cold.
There is one thing you still do not know.
Ask Voss what happened between 1:00 and 2:00 that afternoon.
I looked at Reed.
“What happened during that hour?”
May you like
He stared toward the burning house.
“We’re going to find out.”
