Chapter 5 - THE NIGHT ASHBOURNE BURNEDThe next morning, I moved into Victor’s New York penthouse.
I hated leaving Ashbourne.
But Detective Hill insisted the mansion was no longer secure. The police had found two hidden cameras in the east wing and one beneath the floor of the nursery.
Nathan had watched me sleep.
The thought followed me through every room.
Victor had arranged a private medical team to monitor my pregnancy. My doctor said the baby was healthy, but the stress had caused elevated blood pressure.
“You need rest,” she told me.
I almost smiled.
Rest had become impossible.
Every time I closed my eyes, I saw the photograph of the hospital.
Every time I heard a car stop below the apartment, I expected Nathan to appear.
Mara remained under police supervision in a separate apartment. Her statement had already exposed several illegal transactions, but she insisted she had more evidence.
Three days after the break-in, Evelyn called.
“Ashbourne’s alarm system just activated.”
My stomach dropped.
“What happened?”
“Fire.”
Victor was already standing.
We reached the mansion in less than thirty minutes.
Smoke filled the sky above the estate.
Flames climbed from the west wing, turning the night orange. Firefighters surrounded the property. The old stone walls glowed in the heat.
I stumbled out of the car.
“My mother’s journals.”
“Olivia, no,” Victor said.
“The library is on that side.”
“You cannot go inside.”
“The evidence is in there.”
A firefighter blocked the entrance.
“The building is unstable.”
I watched flames tear through the windows.
The library contained the original documents, the recordings, the letters my mother had left for me.
Then I remembered something.
“The basement,” I said.
Victor grabbed my arm.
“What about it?”
“There’s a secondary entrance beneath the greenhouse.”
Before he could stop me, I ran.
The rain had begun again, soaking my shoes as I crossed the garden.
A security officer followed me.
The greenhouse doors were unlocked.
Beneath the workbench was a trapdoor my mother had shown me when I was a child. I lifted it and climbed down the narrow steps.
The basement smelled of stone and smoke.
A passage led toward the library vault.
The fire had not reached it yet.
I found the metal door and pulled it open.
Inside, the air was cold.
Shelves held boxes of documents, photographs, and journals. My mother had preserved everything she feared would be destroyed.
I grabbed the blue journals and the deed.
Then I noticed a second metal cabinet.
Its door stood open.
Inside was a small wooden box.
I recognized it immediately.
My mother’s handwriting appeared across the lid.
For Olivia.
I carried it toward the stairs.
A loud explosion shook the basement.
Dust fell from the ceiling.
The fire had reached the main structure.
I ran toward the exit, but smoke poured through the passage.
The security officer shouted from above.
“Mrs. Pierce, come back!”
I turned toward the emergency tunnel on the opposite wall.
A sign pointed toward the old chapel.
My mother had told me never to use it.
I pushed open the door.
The tunnel was narrow, dark, and filled with smoke.
Halfway through, pain ripped through my abdomen.
I gripped the wall.
The baby was coming.
“No,” I whispered. “Not now.”
Another contraction forced me to my knees.
I tried to reach for my phone, but it slipped from my hand.
Then I heard footsteps behind me.
For one terrible second, I thought Nathan had found me.
A flashlight cut through the smoke.
“Olivia!”
Victor.
He crawled toward me and wrapped his coat around my shoulders.
“Are you hurt?”
“My baby,” I gasped. “Something is wrong.”
“Stay with me.”
“I can’t breathe.”
“You can. Look at me.”
He lifted me into his arms and carried me through the tunnel.
When we reached the chapel, paramedics rushed forward.
The baby’s heartbeat was too fast.
They placed an oxygen mask over my face and loaded me into an ambulance.
As the doors closed, I looked back at the burning mansion.
The west wing collapsed in a storm of sparks.
Ashbourne was disappearing before my eyes.
I held the wooden box against my chest.
My mother had hidden it from Nathan.
She had hidden it for me.
At the hospital, doctors stopped the contractions temporarily. They said the baby needed more time, but the stress had placed me at risk.
Victor sat beside my bed all night.
He did not sleep.
Neither did I.
At dawn, Evelyn arrived with the deed and the journals.
“The fire was deliberate,” she said.
“I know.”
“The accelerant was found near the library and the nursery.”
The nursery.
My hand moved over my stomach.
Nathan had burned the room meant for his daughter.
Or perhaps he had tried to destroy every piece of evidence connected to me.
“What about the security cameras?” I asked.
“Destroyed.”
“Then how do we prove he did it?”
Mara entered behind Evelyn.
She looked exhausted.
“I can prove it.”
I stared at her.
She placed a memory card on the hospital table.
“Nathan called me an hour before the fire.”
“What did he say?”
“He told me Ashbourne would be empty by midnight.”
“Why?”
“He said his father’s men were going to erase the last proof that the estate belonged to you.”
Evelyn took the card.
“There’s a recording?”
Mara nodded.
“His voice. His instructions. Everything.”
Victor stood.
“Where is Nathan now?”
Mara looked at me.
“He knows the fire failed.”
My blood ran cold.
“How?”
“He called again.”
“What did he say?”
Mara’s lips parted.
“He said the mansion was only the beginning.”
At that moment, a nurse entered with a small package.
“This was left at the front desk for Olivia Pierce.”
The package was wrapped in black paper.
Victor took it carefully.
Inside was a tiny silver baby bracelet.
A note was attached.
For my daughter.
The message was written in Nathan’s handwriting.
I stared at the bracelet until the room blurred.
The contractions began again.
This time, they would not stop.
The monitors screamed.
Doctors rushed into the room.
May you like
Victor held my hand as the hospital filled with voices.
And while my daughter fought to enter the world, Nathan Pierce was preparing to take her from it.
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