Chapter 8
Evan did not intend to burn the estate down.
Of course.
Nobody ever intends the final consequence.
Victor explained.
Evan wanted to force Margot and Daniel out of the west archive room.
He triggered smoke and heat near the generator corridor.
Enough to make them abandon the search.
Then leave.
Instead, the old insulation caught.
Flames spread faster than expected.
Reed knew the plan.
Helped disable cameras.
Did not light anything himself.
Then chaos.
I had been in the study.
Margot in the archive.
Daniel moving between us.
Evan panicked.
Victor arrived because Margot called him seconds before the fire grew.
Reed tried to retrieve the recording first.
That was what he carried beneath his jacket.
Not the recording.
The storage box he thought contained it.
Empty.
Daniel had already moved it.
Then Daniel confronted him in the corridor.
Tore off the cufflink.
Got me out.
Went back for Margot.
“What happened to him?”
Victor looked broken.
“He found Margot.”
My pulse stopped.
“They reached the side stair.”
“Then?”
“The ceiling collapsed.”
Margot escaped through a service opening.
Daniel did not.
I closed my eyes.
He died after saving both of us.
Then Victor took Margot away before Reed or Evan knew she survived.
“Why hide her from me?”
He looked ashamed.
“She believed someone in Vale still wanted the recording destroyed.”
True.
“Did you?”
“At first.”
Honest.
He wanted the conflict buried.
Margot refused.
Then I almost died.
Everything changed.
“She wanted to come to you.”
“Why didn’t she?”
Victor’s grip tightened on the cane.
“I stopped her.”
There.
Again.
Protection becoming control.
“Why?”
“Because you were presumed dead.”
“And after you learned I survived?”
Silence.
He had known before today.
“How long?”
“Three days.”
My anger sharpened.
“My niece—”
“Nell.”
He nodded.
“You let Reed keep her?”
Victor looked genuinely shocked.
“What?”
He did not know.
Good distinction.
Reed’s cruelty toward Nell was his own.
No grand plan.
Personal retaliation.
He blamed Daniel for ruining everything.
May you like
So he took it out on Daniel’s child.
That was almost worse.
