Chapter 14 - The Person Nobody Saw Coming
The security room was chaos.
Screens.
Wires.
Static.
Richard pushed past everyone.
“Find her.”
The guards searched cameras.
Nothing.
No Maya.
No movement.
No exit.
Impossible.
“She didn’t leave the building.”
Detective Hale, who had arrived with police after Richard’s hidden emergency signal activated, studied the screens.
“Then someone helped her disappear.”
Richard looked at him.
“Who?”
Nobody answered.
Because everyone already knew.
Someone inside.
The cameras replayed.
Minute by minute.
Adrian entering.
Victoria entering.
Richard entering.
Then another person.
A staff member.
The estate caretaker.
Thomas.
A man who had worked for the Sterling family for twelve years.
Richard stared.
“No.”
Thomas had helped raise Maya.
He had attended Eleanor’s funeral.
He had carried Maya when she was sick.
The person everyone trusted.
Police found him in the underground garage.
Holding Maya.
But she was not hurt.
She was asleep.
Safe.
Richard almost collapsed from relief.
“Maya.”
He took her.
Held her.
Never letting go.
Thomas did not run.
He simply sat down.
“I’m sorry.”
Richard stared at him.
“Why?”
Thomas looked broken.
“Because Eleanor asked me to.”
The words changed everything.
Richard froze.
“What?”
Thomas looked at him.
“She knew.”
Thomas explained.
Eleanor discovered Adrian’s plan.
She knew Richard was surrounded by people hiding things.
But she also knew something else.
Richard had one weakness.
He wanted to believe people were good.
Sometimes too much.
“She told me if anything happened…”
Thomas swallowed.
“I needed to watch Maya.”
Richard looked at him.
“And you never told me?”
Thomas looked away.
“That was my mistake.”
Another mistake.
Another person who chose silence.
Richard carried Maya upstairs.
She woke slightly.
“Daddy?”
“Yes, baby.”
“Are you mad?”
Richard’s heart broke.
“No.”
She touched his face.
“Everybody is always mad.”
Richard closed his eyes.
Because he finally understood.
The adults had created a world where a two-year-old learned to fear anger.
And he had allowed it.
Later that night, Richard sat beside Maya’s bed.
Claire’s memory.
Eleanor’s memory.
Everything he lost.
Everything he almost lost.
Then his phone buzzed.
A message.
Unknown number.
A picture.
Maya sleeping.
Taken minutes earlier.
Richard’s blood ran cold.
The message said:
YOU SAVED HER FROM US.
May you like
A second message appeared.
BUT YOU STILL DON’T KNOW WHO KILLED ELEANOR.
