My eyelids fluttered slightly.
Her smile appeared for an instant and then vanished.
“I brought you medicine and ginseng tea.”
She brought the spoon to my lips.
I didn’t drink.
“Chloe Lawson.”
“Yes?”
“You pushed me.”
Her hand stopped.
Then she smiled again.
“You’re delirious, sister.”
“You pushed me.”
I repeated.
“You knew he would believe you.”
Her smile hardened for half a second.
“You’re too badly hurt, that’s why you’re saying these things.”
She brought the spoon closer again.
I still didn’t drink.
She stood up.
The way she looked at me… it was as if she were looking at an ant about to die.
“If you don’t want to drink, that’s fine.”
She turned to leave.
After taking two steps…
She stopped.
Without turning her head, she let out a very low laugh.
“Oh, by the way, sister…”
Her voice became sweet again, but every word seemed laced with venom.
“Thomas won’t be able to help you.”
My breath hitched.
She slowly turned her face.
“Did you really think I didn’t know he felt sorry for you?”
My hand clenched tightly around the torn edge of my sleeve.
Chloe smiled.
“Half an hour ago, Julian had the hallway cameras checked. Thomas left your room with something hidden under his jacket. They are looking for him right now.”
My heart sank.
But not out of fear.
But for Thomas.
He didn’t have to pay the price for me.
Chloe leaned in again, close to my ear.
“And even if he managed to get out of the estate… who are you going to call, Olivia? Your dead father? Your dead brother? That Montgomery family that no longer exists?”
Her cold fingers caressed the emerald pendant that I still clutched in my palm.
“How sad. You used to be the princess of Chicago. Now you’re nothing but a broken woman, thrown in a basement.”
I looked at her.
For the first time, I smiled.
A weak smile.
But enough to make her frown.
“Chloe…”
My voice was almost inaudible.
She lowered her head a little.
“What?”
“You’re wrong.”
Her eyes narrowed.
I took a labored breath and said, word by word:
“The Montgomerys… never disappeared.”
Chloe’s expression changed.
It was only for an instant.
But I saw it.
I saw the fear.
At that moment, a sound came from upstairs.
First it was very distant.
Then clearer.
Sirens.
One.
Two.
Many.
Chloe’s face lost its color.
The two maids behind her looked at each other nervously.
“What’s going on?” one muttered.
Chloe stood up straight.
She had barely taken a step toward the door when a loud crash shook the whole estate.
Bang!
Then, loud voices.
“Federal Agents! Nobody move!”
Chloe froze.
I closed my eyes.
Thomas did it.
He really did it.
Footsteps came down the basement stairs like a storm.
This time they weren’t high heels.
They were boots.
They were paramedics.
They were police officers.
And among all of them, an old, hoarse, trembling voice, yet full of authority, pierced the air.
“Olivia.”
My whole body tensed.
I didn’t open my eyes.
I didn’t want to see him.
Not after almost thirty years.
Not after swearing I would never speak his name again.
But that voice called me again.
“Olivia, my child…”
I opened my eyes with difficulty.
A man with completely white hair stood at the entrance to the basement. He wore an impeccable black suit, held a dark wooden cane, and his eyes… were red.
Harrison Caldwell.
My maternal grandfather.
The man my mother had kicked out of our lives when I was barely five years old.
The man whose last name was never mentioned in the Montgomery household.
The man I had believed to be cruel, cold, and ruthless for almost thirty years.
And now he was standing in front of me.
Trembling.
As if he had aged twenty years in a single second.
“Olivia…”
The cane fell to the floor.
He tried to step forward, but his legs gave out. Two bodyguards held him up.
“My little girl…”
Chloe backed away, horrified.
“Mr. Caldwell…”
He didn’t even look at her.
His eyes were only on me.
A paramedic immediately knelt by my side.
“Blood pressure is dropping. We need to transport her now.”
Another voice yelled:
“Stretcher. Oxygen. Quickly.”
I felt someone carefully cutting away the fabric stuck to my back.
I felt professional, steady hands trying to save me.
And for the first time in many hours…
I felt that maybe I could live.
Harrison managed to get closer. He knelt next to the stretcher, ignoring the dust, the blood, the dirt.
His wrinkled hand took mine.
His fingers trembled more than mine did.
“Forgive me.”
I couldn’t speak.
I just looked at him.
He pressed my hand against his forehead.
“Your mother hated me because she thought I had abandoned the family. But that wasn’t true. I had been investigating from the shadows for years. When your father died, when your brother died… I knew it hadn’t been an accident.”
My eyelashes fluttered.
“I wanted to take you with me, to protect you, but Julian Blackwood had already blocked all access. Your calls, your accounts, your lawyers… everything was being monitored.”
His voice cracked.
“It took me three years to gather the evidence. And when Old Sal received the emerald… I knew that you had finally understood, too.”
The stretcher started to move.
Before they took me out of the basement, I barely turned my head.
Chloe was still standing in a corner, as pale as paper.
An agent approached her.
“Chloe Lawson, you are under arrest for attempted murder, fabricating evidence, conspiracy, and obstruction of justice.”
“No…” Chloe shook her head. “No, this is a mistake. Julian will explain everything. Julian loves me. He won’t allow this.”
At that moment, another voice was heard from the stairs.
“What the hell is going on here?”
Julian Blackwood appeared, his face dark, still wearing a white shirt and suit pants. Seeing police, paramedics, and federal agents filling his estate, his expression changed.
Then he saw me.
He saw me on the stretcher.
He saw me alive.
And for the first time since I met him, I saw fear in his eyes.