“Dad!” I screamed again. My voice bounced off the damp concrete walls. No answer. I threw myself against the locked iron gate. Again. Again. Again. The rusted metal barely moved. “Natalie!” Vanessa grabbed my shoulders. “You can’t.” “I have to get him!” “There are too many!” “They’ll kill him!” Margaret wrapped both arms around me. “They’ll kill you too.” For several seconds… I fought them. Not because I thought I could win. Because I couldn’t bear losing him twice. First to a fake funeral. Now… to the truth. Finally… my strength disappeared. I collapsed onto my knees. Chloe quietly walked toward me. She didn’t say anything. She simply wrapped her tiny arms around my neck. “I don’t want Grandpa to die.” Her voice shattered what little strength I had left. Neither did I. … Nearly an hour later… the forest had become quiet again.
Too quiet. Michael had bought us time. Whether he was alive… none of us knew. Vanessa carefully unfolded the map he’d given me. Only one place had been marked. CARTER MANOR Below it… Michael had written three words. Trust no badge. I stared at the handwriting. Lawson. Even if he truly wasn’t leading everything… Michael clearly believed no law enforcement could be trusted. That meant we were alone. Again. … We spent the night inside an abandoned maintenance shed near the railway. None of us slept. Chloe eventually curled beside me beneath an old blanket. Her tiny hand never let go of the silver compass Michael had given her. Even in sleep… she clutched it tightly. Almost as if she somehow understood… it had been his goodbye. … At sunrise… Vanessa quietly unfolded another page hidden inside the map. “I didn’t see this before.” It wasn’t a map. It was a handwritten list.
Seven names. Every name had already been crossed out. Except one. William Carter Underneath… another sentence. He never joined them. Margaret frowned. “What does that mean?” Vanessa looked toward me. “It means Michael believed William wasn’t part of the Circle.” I remembered my mother’s letter. “Judge him only after hearing his story.” Maybe… just maybe… my biological father wasn’t another monster. … The journey toward Carter Manor took almost eight hours. We avoided highways. Avoided gas stations. Avoided towns. Every passing police cruiser made my heart race. Every black SUV made me grip the steering wheel tighter. By sunset… the manor appeared on the horizon. It was enormous.
Far larger than I imagined. Stone walls. Iron gates. Ancient oak trees lining the driveway. Once beautiful. Now abandoned. Windows boarded shut. Vines crawling across the walls. Nature slowly reclaiming wealth. Chloe looked out the window. “Did princesses live there?” I smiled sadly. “No.” “Only people pretending to be kings.” … The front gate hung partially open. Someone had forced it years ago. The driveway was covered in dead leaves. No tire tracks. No fresh footprints. The estate looked forgotten. Exactly the kind of place secrets waited patiently. We entered through the massive front doors. Dust floated through fading sunlight. Portraits lined the walls. Generations of Carters. Watching us. Judging us. One portrait stopped me cold. A younger Eleanor. Standing beside two men. One was Lawson. The other… William. My father. They looked inseparable. Friends. Family. Brothers in everything except blood.
I whispered,
“He knew Lawson.”
Vanessa nodded.
“Long before any of us.”
…
The library remained almost untouched.
Thousands of books.
Old ledgers.
Family journals.
Michael had circled one shelf on the map.
We searched for nearly twenty minutes.
Nothing.
Then Chloe tugged my sleeve.
“Mommy?”
“What is it?”
She pointed toward a globe in the corner.
“It moved.”
I frowned.
“What do you mean?”
“It wiggled.”
I walked over.
She was right.
The antique globe wasn’t attached properly.
I turned it slightly.
A loud click echoed through the library.
The bookshelf slowly slid sideways.
Revealing…
another hidden room.
Inside…
everything had been preserved.
Maps.
Boxes.
Photographs.
Tape recorders.
Film reels.
It wasn’t a secret room.
It was an archive.
Michael had been collecting evidence for years.
On the center desk sat one envelope.
Across the front…
my name.
For Natalie
My hands trembled as I opened it.
Inside…
a cassette tape.
And a handwritten note.
If you’re hearing this… I couldn’t come back.
A tape recorder sat beside it.
Still plugged into the wall.
I slowly inserted the cassette.
Pressed PLAY.
Static filled the room.
Then…
Michael’s voice.
“Natalie…”
“If you’re listening…”
“Then something went wrong.”
His breathing sounded uneven.
“I never wanted you to carry this burden.”
“But the truth belongs to you now.”
“You’ve probably reached Carter Manor searching for William.”
“He may still be alive.”
“If he is…”
“Don’t hate him.”
“He loved your mother.”
“He loved you.”
“He just never knew.”
I closed my eyes.
Michael continued.
“But there is one thing you must understand before you find him.”
A long pause.
“The Circle doesn’t have one leader.”
Vanessa looked at me.
Margaret slowly lowered her head.
Michael’s voice became quieter.
“It never did.”
“They wanted everyone to believe Eleanor was in charge.”
“They wanted everyone to suspect Lawson.”
“They even wanted people to fear William.”
“But all of us…”
He inhaled deeply.
“…were looking at the wrong person.”
Every hair on my arms stood up.
Michael whispered one final sentence.
“The person who controls everything…”
“…has never carried the Carter name.”
The tape abruptly stopped.
Click.
Silence.
Nobody spoke.
Because if Michael was right…
then every enemy we’d fought…
every betrayal…
every death…
had been orchestrated by someone we hadn’t even suspected.
At that exact moment…
A grandfather clock somewhere deep inside the mansion chimed.
Once.
Twice.
Three times.
Then…
Footsteps.
Slow.
Measured.
Coming from the floor above.
Someone else…
was inside Carter Manor.
END OF PART 13
