Chapter 14 — The Second Attempt Came From Inside
The phone rang three times.
Nobody moved.
Then Tessa realized where the sound was coming from.
The kitchen.
Her kitchen.
The same kitchen where she'd cooked Eda's recipe.
The same kitchen where Victor had collapsed.
The same kitchen where someone had tried to poison Ronan.
Tessa walked toward it.
Ronan caught her wrist.
“No.”
“They're calling me.”
“That's exactly why you're not going.”
The phone rang again.
Tessa looked at him.
“If I don't answer, someone else might.”
Ronan released her.
“Marcus.”
“I've got her.”
They entered the kitchen together.
The phone sat on the stainless-steel preparation table.
An old landline.
One that hadn't worked in years.
It rang again.
Tessa picked it up.
“Hello?”
Silence.
Then breathing.
Slow.
Measured.
Familiar.
Tessa's face drained of color.
She knew that breathing.
She had heard it once as a child.
Behind the basement door.
Fourteen years ago.
A man's voice finally spoke.
“You remember now.”
Tessa couldn't answer.
Ronan took the phone.
“Who are you?”
The voice laughed softly.
“You still sound like your father.”
Ronan's eyes darkened.
“My father is dead.”
“No.”
A pause.
“Your father has been hiding in plain sight.”
The line went dead.
At that exact moment, every oven in the kitchen switched on.
The temperature began climbing.
Marcus cursed.
“Gas.”
Tessa looked toward the ceiling.
“No.”
“What?”
“Not gas.”
She pointed at the ovens.
“They're empty.”
Then she noticed the timer.
Every display showed the same number.
11:40.
Ronan understood.
“Get out.”
They ran.
Seconds later, flames erupted beneath the kitchen counters.
The explosion wasn't large enough to destroy the building.
It was designed to do something worse.
Destroy evidence.
The blue tin.
The recipe.
Eda's notebook.
Everything Tessa had carried for years was inside the fireproof cabinet.
Ronan charged toward it.
“Tessa!”
She grabbed his arm.
“No!”
“That's my mother's evidence.”
“And if you go in there, you'll die.”
He looked at her.
She pointed.
The cabinet door had already fallen open.
Inside, the blue tin remained untouched.
Tessa stared.
“Why didn't it burn?”
Marcus approached.
“Because it wasn't in the cabinet.”
Tessa looked down.
The tin was on the floor.
Someone had moved it.
Ronan crouched.
Underneath it was a folded piece of paper.
He opened it.
Only six words were written.
YOUR MOTHER WASN'T THE TARGET.
Tessa's heart stopped.
Ronan read the second line.
YOU WERE.
A gunshot shattered the window.
Tessa dropped.
Ronan pulled her down.
Marcus rushed toward the glass.
“Shooter on the east roof!”
Two guards ran outside.
Then one screamed.
A second shot.
Silence.
Marcus looked at Ronan.
“This is coordinated.”
Ronan looked at Tessa.
“No.”
He pointed toward the hallway.
“It's personal.”
A shadow appeared behind the kitchen door.
Tessa froze.
The figure stepped into the light.
Elias Vale.
Blood covered one side of his shirt.
Ronan raised his gun.
“You.”
Elias looked at Tessa.
Then at the burning kitchen.
“I told Eda this would happen.”
Tessa's voice trembled.
“You knew?”
“I knew they would come for you.”
“Who?”
Elias looked at Ronan.
“Your father.”
Ronan's expression became murderous.
“My father is dead.”
Elias shook his head.
“No.”
Then he reached into his pocket and placed a photograph on the floor.
It showed an older man standing outside a private estate.
Gray hair.
Black coat.
Black onyx ring.
Ronan stared.
He knew the face.
He had seen it in childhood photographs.
He had seen it at his mother's funeral.
He had seen it every time he looked in the mirror.
His father.
Gabriel Callahan.
Alive.
And standing beside him was the man Ronan had just shot.
The security officer.
The traitor at his table.
Elias whispered:
“They weren't trying to kill you tonight.”
His eyes moved to Tessa.
“They were trying to take her alive.”
Then, from somewhere outside Beaumont House, a car engine roared.
Elias looked toward the window.
“They've found her.”
Tessa stepped backward.
“Who?”
Elias's answer was barely audible.
“The man Eda spent fourteen years hiding you from.”
The flames climbed higher.
And for the first time, Tessa understood—
May you like
Eda had never been hiding her from the past.
She had been hiding her from her own father.
