Chapter 14 - THE FIRE IN THE ARCHIVE
Eleanor’s arrest dominated the news.
The Hawthorne Foundation’s accounts were frozen.
Donors demanded investigations.
Hospitals and universities removed the family name from buildings.
Vanessa remained under guard at St. Catherine’s Hospital.
Charles Mercer agreed to cooperate in exchange for a reduced sentence.
Emma’s father was officially declared a likely victim of wrongful prosecution.
Still, one problem remained.
The surviving records did not identify the officials who helped Eleanor frame Owen.
Charles claimed the complete list had been stored in the mansion’s underground archive.
Police returned with another warrant.
Emma insisted on going with them.
She wanted to see the place where her father’s truth had remained hidden.
Ethan walked beside her through the empty mansion.
The staircase had been cleaned.
No trace of Emma’s fall remained.
She stopped at the bottom.
Ethan followed her gaze.
“I should have believed you immediately.”
“Yes.”
“I cannot change that.”
“No.”
“But I will spend the rest of my life regretting it.”
Emma turned away.
The archive entrance stood behind the library.
Detective Ruiz opened the steel door.
Smoke poured into the hallway.
Someone had set fire to the lower shelves.
Officers rushed for extinguishers.
Emma covered her mouth.
Through the smoke, she saw a figure moving between the shelves.
“Someone’s inside.”
Ruiz ordered everyone back.
The figure ran toward a second exit.
Ethan chased him.
“Ethan, stop!” Emma shouted.
The man reached the service tunnel.
Ethan tackled him near the door.
They struck the concrete floor.
A metal can rolled from the stranger’s hand.
Ruiz pulled the man away and removed his mask.
It was Thomas Hawthorne, Ethan’s uncle and a foundation board member.
Thomas had voted against Eleanor at the gala.
Now he was destroying evidence.
“You don’t understand,” Thomas shouted.
“She kept records on all of us.”
Ruiz handcuffed him.
Firefighters contained the flames.
A cabinet near the back wall survived.
Inside was the original list of payments.
Judges, officers, doctors, and reporters had received money.
One name appeared beside the prison medical department.
DR. SAMUEL PATEL.
Emma stared at it.
Dr. Patel had treated her after the fall.
He had also been the prison doctor who signed her father’s death report.
At that exact moment, Emma felt a sharp contraction.
Then another.
May you like
Water spread across the marble floor beneath her feet.
Her baby was coming eight weeks early.
