Chapter 7 - The Night Elizabeth Came HomeRoman drove back to the mansion before dawn.
He entered through the same service door Elizabeth had used twenty-two years earlier.
The east wing was quiet.
Most rooms had been renovated twice since his childhood.
But the architecture remained.
A narrow corridor.
A private sitting room.
The staircase leading toward his mother’s former study.
Roman stood where the camera had captured her.
Lily joined him.
“You believe it was her?”
“Yes.”
“You only saw one second.”
“I know my mother.”
Lily did not argue.
Roman walked upstairs.
Elizabeth’s old study had become a reading room.
He opened cabinets.
Nothing.
Behind one bookcase, he noticed scratches in the wood near the baseboard.
Old scratches.
He crouched.
“There used to be a wall safe here.”
Lily looked around.
“Removed during renovation?”
“Maybe.”
Roman called Helen.
She answered immediately.
“Where was my mother’s safe?”
Silence.
Then:
“You found the panel.”
“What was inside?”
“I don’t know.”
“Who removed it?”
“Marcus ordered the study remodeled eleven years ago.”
Roman looked at Lily.
Another coincidence from the same year.
“Did my father know?”
“Vincent was already dead.”
Roman ended the call.
At seven, he summoned the contractor responsible for the old renovation.
By nine, Roman had an answer.
The wall safe had been removed intact.
Instructions signed by Gerald Talbot.
Destination:
Kane Archive Warehouse.
Roman’s private records team searched the warehouse database.
No safe existed.
Talbot had been dismissed the previous day and instructed not to leave Chicago pending civil litigation.
Roman called him.
No answer.
Security reported Talbot had left his apartment around midnight.
Roman’s anger flared.
Then he remembered his own order.
No confrontation.
No accusation.
He had underestimated how quickly fear could move.
Lily entered with coffee.
“You haven’t eaten.”
“I’m not hungry.”
“That doesn’t make food optional.”
Roman stared at her.
She placed a sandwich beside him.
“Margaret taught me that line.”
Despite everything, Roman smiled.
Briefly.
Then his phone rang.
His attorney had located Dr. Nathan Bell.
Alive.
Eighty-three.
Retired in Wisconsin.
Roman and Lily drove north that afternoon.
Bell lived in a modest house outside Kenosha.
He opened the door, saw Roman, and immediately tried to close it.
Roman placed one hand against the frame.
“I’m not here to hurt you.”
Bell’s eyes narrowed.
“That’s exactly what a Kane says before something unpleasant.”
Lily said, “Dr. Bell, we found Elizabeth’s recording.”
The old physician froze.
Roman saw fear.
Then guilt.
Bell slowly opened the door.
Inside, family photographs covered the walls.
Nothing suggested a man who had spent decades waiting for this conversation.
Roman placed Elizabeth’s diary on the coffee table.
“You treated her after the fire.”
Bell nodded.
“You helped conceal that she survived.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because Vincent Kane paid me.”
Roman’s jaw tightened.
Bell continued before he could speak.
“And because I believed it was temporary.”
Roman laughed bitterly.
“There’s that word again.”
Bell looked ashamed.
“Elizabeth suffered burns, a concussion, and severe smoke inhalation. She was disoriented. Vincent feared whoever caused the fire might try again.”
“You believe the fire was deliberate?”
“I never knew.”
“Who brought her to you?”
“Marcus.”
Roman went still.
Bell nodded.
“He said she had been found by one of his men near the lake property.”
“Why not take her to a hospital?”
“Because a hospital would report her survival.”
“So you agreed to hide her.”
“For forty-eight hours.”
“It became weeks.”
“Yes.”
“Why St. Agnes?”
“It was private.”
“And controlled by Marcus?”
“No.”
Bell hesitated.
“Not initially.”
Roman leaned forward.
“Explain.”
“Marcus acquired influence over the administrator through debt.”
“What kind of debt?”
“Gambling.”
Roman understood.
“You medicated my mother.”
“I treated pain and agitation.”
“She wrote that she didn’t trust your tablets.”
Bell’s face collapsed.
“I know.”
“You know?”
“She accused me of helping them imprison her.”
“Were you?”
Bell’s eyes filled.
“At first, no.”
Roman said nothing.
Bell looked toward Lily as though she were safer to confess to.
“Then Vincent asked me to certify that Elizabeth lacked capacity.”
Roman’s expression hardened.
“Why?”
“Because Marcus had produced financial documents supposedly signed by her after the fire. Vincent wanted them challenged.”
“That sounds useful.”
“It would have been.”
Bell looked sick.
“But Marcus offered me money to write the certification differently.”
Roman waited.
“To say her incapacity began before April third.”
Lily understood first.
“That would validate Marcus’s authority under the power-of-attorney document.”
Bell nodded.
Roman’s voice went dangerously quiet.
“Did you do it?”
“Yes.”
Silence.
Roman stood.
Bell flinched.
Roman walked to the window instead.
He had promised himself facts before vengeance.
He held to it.
Barely.
“What happened June seventh?”
Bell closed his eyes.
“You know about that night?”
“My mother came home.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“She escaped.”
Roman turned.
“From where?”
“Not St. Agnes. She had been moved to a rented house after Arthur found her.”
“By Marcus?”
“I believe so.”
“Believe?”
“I wasn’t present.”
“Who was?”
“Claire Donnelly.”
Roman stared.
“The bank officer.”
“She became Elizabeth’s ally.”
“Then why did she certify the transfers?”
“Because Marcus forced her.”
“How?”
Bell hesitated.
“Claire had altered bank records years earlier for Vincent.”
Roman exhaled.
Everyone had leverage on everyone.
“What happened when Elizabeth reached the mansion?”
Bell’s face changed.
“Vincent called me.”
“What did he say?”
“He said Elizabeth was alive, furious, and had evidence.”
“Against Marcus?”
“Against all of them.”
Roman felt something turn.
“All?”
Bell looked directly at him.
“Marcus stole from Hawthorne.”
A pause.
“Vincent helped cover the first theft.”
Roman’s chest tightened.
“And Samuel Voss falsified the paperwork.”
Bell nodded.
“Elizabeth intended to take the evidence to federal prosecutors the next morning.”
Roman whispered, “Did she?”
“No.”
“Why?”
Bell’s voice dropped.
“Because before sunrise, she disappeared again.”
Roman stepped closer.
“And this time?”
Bell swallowed.
“Vincent told me Marcus took her.”
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Roman stared.
“But Marcus told me Vincent did.”
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