CHAPTER 4 The Man Who Attended His Own Funeral
The room fell into absolute silence.
No one blinked.
No one breathed.
Every eye remained fixed on the elderly man descending the grand staircase with slow, measured steps.
His polished cane struck the marble floor.
Click.
Click.
Click.
Each sound echoed like a countdown.
William Blackwood.
The man whose funeral had been attended by Boston's most powerful politicians.
The billionaire industrialist whose death nineteen years earlier had made international headlines.
The founder of Blackwood Holdings.
The ghost who was supposed to be buried beneath a marble monument in the family cemetery.
Yet here he was.
Very much alive.
Victoria immediately lowered her head.
"Dad..."
William didn't even look at her.
His attention remained on Sophia.
He studied her face carefully.
Then Lily's.
A faint smile appeared.
"You have Eleanor's eyes."
Lily instinctively stepped behind Sophia.
"You... you're supposed to be dead."
William chuckled.
"So I've been told."
Rebecca Collins quickly regained her composure.
She removed a pair of handcuffs from her briefcase.
"William Blackwood."
"You are under investigation—"
William raised one finger.
Rebecca suddenly stopped speaking.
Not because she was intimidated.
Because six men in tailored black suits quietly entered through the rear doors.
They carried no visible weapons.
But every movement screamed military discipline.
Former special forces.
Private security.
Professionals.
The Rossi estate wasn't the only place that employed elite protection.
Sophia stepped in front of Lily.
"What do you want?"
William answered calmly.
"The truth."
Sophia laughed bitterly.
"The truth?"
"After hiding for nineteen years?"
William nodded.
"Sometimes disappearing is the only way to stay alive."
Mr. Harrington clenched his fists.
"You expect anyone to believe that?"
William turned toward his former attorney.
"I expected you to keep your promise."
"I did."
"No."
William's voice became colder.
"You protected Victoria."
"I protected two little girls."
Mr. Harrington shot back.
William fell silent.
Rebecca looked toward the detectives.
"Call for backup."
One detective reached for his radio.
Nothing happened.
He frowned.
"No signal."
Another officer checked his phone.
"No service."
William smiled.
"The mansion blocks all outside communications."
Sophia immediately looked around the room.
"You planned this."
"I prepared for it."
"There's a difference."
Lily's voice trembled.
"If you knew what Victoria was doing..."
"...why didn't you stop her?"
For the first time...
William looked genuinely saddened.
"I wasn't here."
Lily frowned.
"But..."
"I disappeared because someone tried to kill me."
Silence.
William slowly walked toward the fireplace.
He removed an old photograph from the mantel.
It showed a much younger Eleanor Ashford standing beside her husband.
Both were smiling.
Between them...
Three small children.
Sophia.
Lily.
And a baby boy.
Lily stared at the photograph.
"We..."
"...we really had a brother."
William nodded.
"You did."
Sophia stepped closer.
"Where is he?"
William closed his eyes.
"I've spent twenty years trying to answer that question."
Victoria suddenly laughed.
Everyone turned toward her.
The sound was unsettling.
Almost hysterical.
"You still don't know?"
She looked directly at William.
"You searched the entire world..."
"...and you never realized who took him."
William's expression darkened.
"You did."
Victoria shook her head.
"No."
"I delivered him."
"To whom?"
Victoria smiled.
"You'll never find him."
Before anyone could respond...
A loud explosion shook the mansion.
The crystal chandelier swayed violently.
Windows rattled.
Servants screamed.
Marco smoke rose from the east wing.
One bodyguard rushed into the hall.
"Sir!"
"The archives!"
"They're on fire!"
William's face changed instantly.
"No."
He dropped his cane and ran.
Far faster than a man his age should have been able to.
Sophia and Rebecca followed.
The east wing was already filling with thick black smoke.
Flames consumed shelves lined with old ledgers, photographs, legal records, and handwritten journals.
The Blackwood family archives.
One hundred years of history.
Burning.
Firefighters hadn't arrived.
The estate's alarm system...
Had been disabled.
William grabbed a fire extinguisher.
"It's too late."
Marco of the bodyguards shouted.
"The fire started in four places at once!"
Rebecca looked toward Victoria.
"You planned this."
Victoria smiled calmly.
"No."
"I expected it."
Sophia noticed something.
The fire wasn't spreading randomly.
It was moving toward one particular room.
A reinforced steel vault.
William saw it too.
His face turned white.
"The vault."
He sprinted through the smoke.
Two guards forced the heavy steel door open.
Inside...
Thousands of documents remained untouched.
For now.
William ignored everything else.
Instead...
He rushed toward a small wooden box sitting alone on the highest shelf.
He held it against his chest.
Almost reverently.
Sophia noticed.
"What's inside?"
William answered without looking up.
"The only proof your mother ever existed."
Smoke poured into the room.
The ceiling groaned.
Rebecca shouted,
"We have to leave!"
A burning beam crashed behind them.
Blocking the entrance.
The room erupted into panic.
One guard tried lifting the beam.
It wouldn't move.
Heat became unbearable.
Lily began coughing violently.
Sophia wrapped an arm around her.
William looked desperately around the room.
"There has to be another exit."
Mr. Harrington suddenly pointed toward the floor.
"The old tunnel!"
William nodded.
"I forgot..."
He pulled an iron ring hidden beneath an antique carpet.
A trapdoor opened.
Cold air rushed upward.
"The servants' passage."
One by one...
Everyone climbed into the narrow tunnel.
Just as William entered...
The ceiling collapsed.
The archive room disappeared beneath an inferno.
Twenty minutes later...
The survivors emerged inside an abandoned carriage house behind the mansion.
Fire crews finally arrived.
The east wing burned uncontrollably.
William sat silently on an old wooden crate.
Still holding the small wooden box.
Sophia knelt beside him.
"May I?"
He hesitated.
Then nodded.
She carefully opened the lid.
Inside were only three items.
A tiny silver baby bracelet engraved:
Baby Ethan Ashford
Lily gasped.
"Ethan..."
"Our brother had a name."
Beside it lay a faded birth certificate.
And beneath both...
A sealed envelope.
Addressed in Eleanor's handwriting.
To My Son—If We Never Meet Again
Sophia's hands began trembling.
Lily quietly cried beside her.
Their mother...
Had written one final letter.
To the baby who had disappeared.
William whispered,
"I never had the courage to open it."
Sophia looked at him.
"Then we'll open it together."
She slowly broke the seal.
Inside was a single handwritten page.
The first line made everyone's heart stop.
My precious Ethan, if this letter reaches you, it means the people hunting our family failed to erase who you are...
Sophia swallowed hard and continued reading.
Never trust anyone who calls themselves a Blackwood... except your grandfather.
William closed his eyes.
Tears slipped down his weathered face.
But it was the next sentence...
The one written near the bottom of the page...
That froze every person standing in the carriage house.
If you ever wish to find your sisters, look for the lighthouse on Blackwater Island. That's where I hid the truth no one else knows.
Rebecca slowly lowered the letter.
"Blackwater Island..."
Mr. Harrington's face drained of color.
"No..."
Sophia turned toward him.
"What is it?"
The old lawyer whispered,
"That lighthouse was demolished..."
"...eighteen years ago."
William looked toward the burning mansion.
Then quietly said,
"No."
"They wanted everyone to believe it was demolished."
He met Sophia's eyes.
"The lighthouse is still there."
"And if Eleanor hid something inside..."
May you like
"It may finally tell us who stole Ethan..."
"...and why an entire family was destroyed to keep that secret."
