Chapter 5 - THE VAULT
They reached the estate twenty minutes later.
The front door was open.
Every light was off.
Richard stopped Ethan.
“Stay behind me.”
Ethan almost laughed.
“Dad, I'm thirty-eight.”
“You're still my son.”
They entered.
Nothing had been stolen.
No furniture was disturbed.
No paintings were missing.
Sophia hadn't come for valuables.
She had come for the basement.
Richard opened a concealed door behind the wine cellar.
A staircase descended into darkness.
At the bottom was a steel door.
Sophia stood beside it.
She was holding a gun.
Ethan stopped.
“Sophia.”
She looked exhausted.
“I didn't want it to come to this.”
“You staged an assault.”
“I needed you to believe me.”
“You destroyed my family.”
She looked at Richard.
“He destroyed mine first.”
Richard stepped forward.
“I didn't.”
“You knew about Victor.”
“I knew enough to be afraid.”
Sophia's eyes filled with tears.
“You could have saved my mother.”
“I tried.”
“You let her disappear.”
“I searched for her for twenty-two years.”
Sophia's hand trembled.
“Then why did she never come home?”
Richard looked at her.
“Because she didn't want to.”
Sophia froze.
“What?”
Richard pulled out an envelope.
“Your mother is alive.”
Sophia's face went white.
“No.”
“She contacted me six months ago.”
“Where is she?”
Richard handed her the envelope.
Sophia opened it.
A photograph fell out.
Margaret.
Older.
Alive.
Standing beside a small house.
On the back were four words:
I AM SORRY, SOPHIA.
Sophia began crying.
“You're lying.”
Richard shook his head.
“Your mother hid because Victor's people were still looking for her.”
“Victor is dead.”
“His network isn't.”
Sophia stared at him.
“Then what's in the vault?”
Richard looked at the steel door.
“Everything.”
Ethan stepped closer.
“Everything?”
“Names. Accounts. recordings.”
Sophia lowered the gun slightly.
“Then open it.”
Richard looked at Ethan.
“You're the only one who can.”
Ethan approached the keypad.
He entered his birth date.
Nothing.
His mother's birthday.
Nothing.
His grandfather's.
Nothing.
Then he remembered the letter.
He entered one final number.
His father's wedding anniversary.
The vault unlocked.
The door slowly opened.
Inside was a single chair.
A camera.
And a tape recorder.
The recorder clicked on by itself.
A man's voice filled the room.
Charles Whitmore.
Ethan's grandfather.
“If you're hearing this…”
May you like
He paused.
“…someone has finally come looking for the truth.”
