Chapter 4 - THE ROOM WITHOUT WINDOWS
I didn't want to go back to the house.
Every part of me resisted it.
But the police had already secured the property, and Detective Ellis believed the hidden room might contain evidence connecting the financial scheme to the attacks against me.
So I went.
Alex came with me.
The house looked different without the family inside it.
Smaller.
Ugly.
The marble floors seemed cold rather than impressive.
The kitchen still smelled faintly of coffee.
A dark mark remained where my blood had dried before the paramedics cleaned the floor.
I stopped.
Alex touched my shoulder.
“You don't have to.”
“I need to see it.”
We entered the kitchen.
I remembered the stick.
I remembered Trent's voice.
I remembered Helen laughing.
Then I looked at the doorway where Alex had appeared.
The lights went out.
And everything changed.
Detective Ellis joined us.
“Search team found the hidden room.”
She led us toward Richard's office.
The safe was open.
Shelves had been removed.
Behind them was a narrow passage.
My stomach twisted.
Inside were filing cabinets.
Hundreds of them.
Names.
Dates.
Bank records.
Photographs.
Medical documents.
Property deeds.
Court filings.
People had been reduced to paper.
Detective Ellis opened a drawer.
“Here.”
My name.
I couldn't move.
Alex took the file.
Inside were copies of my driver's license, medical records, employment history, bank statements, and photographs taken without my knowledge.
I looked at the dates.
Some photographs were from before I met Trent.
“He was watching me?”
“Looks like it,” Ellis said.
“Why?”
She opened another folder.
Trent.
Then another.
Helen.
Richard.
Then a company name.
A company I'd never heard of.
Alex read it aloud.
“Northstar Holdings.”
Detective Ellis went still.
“You know it?”
“Yes.”
Alex looked at me.
“Northstar is connected to an old case.”
“What case?”
He hesitated.
“Money laundering. Smuggling. Shell corporations.”
I stared at him.
“And Richard?”
“Possibly involved.”
Detective Ellis looked through the file.
“There are transfer records.”
She pulled out a document.
“Your husband wasn't just gambling.”
“What was he doing?”
“He was laundering money through construction contracts.”
I felt dizzy.
“Why me?”
Ellis didn't answer.
She found another document.
A beneficiary form.
My name was listed.
I read it twice.
“This is a life insurance policy.”
“Yes.”
“For me.”
“Yes.”
My hands shook.
“Who is the beneficiary?”
She turned the page.
Trent.
I laughed once.
It sounded broken.
“He was going to kill me.”
Alex's face changed.
“No.”
I looked at him.
“He was going to make it look accidental.”
Silence.
Then Detective Ellis found something else.
A handwritten note.
One sentence.
Keep pregnancy under control.
The handwriting belonged to Richard.
My knees weakened.
Alex caught me.
I whispered, “He wanted me to lose the baby.”
“We don't know that yet,” Ellis said.
“But you know what that means.”
She looked at the note.
“I know it is evidence.”
Then a noise came from the corridor.
Everyone froze.
Footsteps.
Detective Ellis reached for her radio.
A man appeared in the doorway.
Trent.
For one impossible second, I couldn't understand why he was there.
Then I saw the handcuffs were gone.
He wasn't alone.
Richard stood behind him.
Helen was with them.
Alex stepped between me and the doorway.
“You're supposed to be in custody.”
Trent smiled.
“Not anymore.”
Detective Ellis reached for her phone.
Richard spoke calmly.
“Detective, you may want to check your warrant.”
Ellis stared at him.
Then her phone rang.
She answered.
Her expression changed.
“What?”
She listened.
“No.”
She looked at me.
“Stay behind me.”
Trent stepped forward.
“You should have stayed quiet.”
I felt something inside me harden.
For two years, I had believed power belonged to people like him.
People with money.
People with lawyers.
People who could make fear enter a room before they did.
But now I knew something Trent had forgotten.
Evidence existed.
Witnesses existed.
And I had a brother who had spent years learning how to protect people who could not protect themselves.
Alex looked at Trent.
“You're not touching her.”
Trent laughed.
“You think you're going to stop me?”
Alex's voice was quiet.
“Yes.”
Then the hallway lights flickered.
Detective Ellis looked toward the security panel.
“Someone just triggered the building alarm.”
Richard's face changed.
Alex saw it too.
“Ellis,” he said, “get her out.”
“What are you going to do?”
“Finish this.”
But before anyone moved, a loud crash came from downstairs.
May you like
Someone had entered the house.
And this time, nobody knew who.
