CHAPTER 5 — THE HOUSE IN DARKNESS
CHAPTER 5 — THE HOUSE IN DARKNESS
The house fell into complete darkness.
Someone screamed downstairs.
Glass shattered.
Clara reached for Audrey.
“Stay beside me.”
Richard switched on his phone flashlight.
George was gone.
Julian moved toward the doorway.
“Uncle George!”
No answer.
A rear door slammed.
Richard looked at his son.
“Don’t chase him.”
“He’s escaping.”
“He may want you to follow.”
Sirens sounded in the distance.
Maria had called the police the moment she smelled smoke.
Within minutes, red and blue lights flashed across the windows.
Officers searched the property.
George’s car remained in the driveway.
But George himself had disappeared.
The power was restored thirty minutes later.
A police sergeant questioned each family member separately.
Audrey refused to be alone.
Clara remained beside her.
Julian sat across the room, staring at the unsigned marriage certificate on the table.
The officiant had completed the ceremony.
Legally, they were married.
But Audrey would not even look at him.
The sergeant approached Julian.
“Your wife says you confined and threatened her.”
Julian lowered his eyes.
“I made a terrible mistake.”
“That isn’t an answer.”
“I locked the door.”
“Did she ask to leave?”
“Yes.”
“Did you refuse?”
“Yes.”
The officer nodded grimly.
Julian was handcuffed in the same hallway where wedding guests had praised him hours earlier.
Clara watched the police lead away the son she thought she knew.
He stopped beside Audrey.
“I believed you killed her.”
Audrey’s voice was quiet.
“You wanted to believe it.”
Julian looked wounded.
She continued.
“Because hating me was easier than admitting you ignored Sienna when she begged you to question those documents.”
Julian was taken outside.
Richard sat down heavily.
Clara pressed both palms against her face.
Everything had collapsed in a single night.
Her son’s marriage.
Her trust.
Her family.
Audrey touched Clara’s shoulder.
“You don’t have to choose me over him.”
Clara looked up.
“He chose revenge over the truth. That was his decision, not mine.”
A police officer entered the room holding a muddy jacket.
“We found this near the old garden wall.”
It belonged to George.
In the pocket was a train ticket for a departure at 5:40 the next morning.
But there was something else.
A handwritten note.
Richard unfolded it.
The message contained only six words:
Box 317 must never be opened.
At that exact moment, Clara’s phone rang.
Unknown number.
She answered.
George’s voice whispered through the speaker.
May you like
“If you go to that bank, Richard dies.”
Then the line went dead.
