Chapter 8 - A MESSAGE FROM THE DEAD
Isabel Vale looked directly into the camera.
Her dark hair was shorter than in the newspaper photographs.
A faint scar crossed one side of her forehead.
But it was unmistakably her.
She raised her hands.
And she began signing.
Caleb stumbled backward.
My sweet boy, Isabel signed. If this recording reaches you, I hope you've grown into the man I always knew you could become.
I looked at Caleb.
Tears were running down his face.
His mother continued.
I wanted to come home. I tried more times than you will ever know.
She explained that Victor had arranged the lake house explosion.
She had survived because she'd been near a rear exit.
Victor's men had taken her before rescuers could identify her.
For years, he'd forced her to manage financial records for businesses he secretly controlled.
Whenever she refused, he threatened Caleb.
“I didn't know she had learned sign language,” Dominic whispered.
Caleb didn't look at him.
Isabel signed again.
I learned because I dreamed of the day I could finally speak with you without anyone standing between us.
My throat tightened.
Then her expression became serious.
Evan helped me escape for three days. I told him everything, but Victor found me again.
The recording showed Evan sitting beside her.
He signed one final message.
I made copies of the original records. They prove who planned the explosion and why.
Isabel continued.
Victor believes those records were destroyed. But I hid the originals years ago.
She described an old wooden chessboard in Caleb's childhood bedroom at the lake house.
A chessboard Dominic had given Caleb before the explosion.
Its underside contained a compartment accessible through a small sliding panel.
“I remember that board,” Dominic said.
Caleb looked sharply toward his father.
Where is it now?
Dominic's expression changed.
“After the explosion, I had everything from the house brought into storage. Later, I moved the surviving furniture into the mansion.”
Caleb signed again.
My room?
Dominic nodded.
“I kept it exactly as it was.”
The video ended.
I wiped my cheeks.
For the first time since Evan's death, I understood that he hadn't spent his last months hiding from life.
He'd been fighting for someone else's.
But Elena hadn't finished examining the files.
She found a photograph attached to Isabel's recording.
It showed the Vale lake house before the explosion.
A red circle marked one particular room.
Caleb's bedroom.
Beneath it, Evan had written:
May you like
The bomb wasn't placed where Dominic slept.
It was placed beneath Caleb's bed.
