Chapter 17 - The Counterattack
The clock in Charles’s study had stopped seventeen years ago.
4:17.
Eleanor had refused to repair it.
Adrian always assumed grief was the reason.
Now he understood.
They raced toward the mansion while police surrounded the property.
Marcus demanded no officers enter.
He threatened Eleanor.
Adrian watched from the command vehicle.
“The clock.”
Sophie searched photographs of the study.
Large grandfather clock.
Old.
Heavy.
Thomas had designed the security system.
Grace had used codes.
Charles hid documents beneath floors.
Everything in this family had a second purpose.
Sophie remembered the postcard numbers.
4-17-29.
4:17.
Twenty-nine.
The clock.
She opened Grace’s diary to page twenty-nine.
A sentence she had overlooked:
When Charles said time would testify, Thomas laughed.
Sophie looked at Adrian.
“The clock records sound.”
He stared.
“What?”
“Thomas installed something.”
They accessed old security schematics.
A concealed analog recorder was built into the study clock after Charles began suspecting Marcus.
It operated independently from mansion power.
If it still worked, it might contain the final conversation Charles had before his death.
Marcus wanted it.
That was why he returned.
Eleanor must have known.
Adrian contacted her through the study landline.
Marcus answered.
“Bring the microfilm.”
Adrian kept his voice steady.
“You leave my mother alive.”
“Bring it.”
Sophie whispered to an investigator.
“He thinks we have the only copy.”
They prepared a duplicate.
Adrian entered the mansion alone.
Sophie watched through the hidden feed.
Marcus stood behind Eleanor.
Adrian placed the envelope on the desk.
“Let her go.”
Marcus smiled.
“You look like Charles.”
“People keep telling me.”
“He was stubborn too.”
“He trusted you.”
Marcus’s smile faded.
“That was his mistake.”
Sophie looked at the audio technician.
“Are we recording?”
“Yes.”
Adrian kept him talking.
“Why kill him?”
Marcus laughed.
“Charles wanted morality after spending twenty years building an empire.”
“He wanted you to stop stealing.”
“I made that family rich.”
“You stole from it.”
“I controlled it.”
Adrian glanced toward the clock.
“You poisoned him.”
Marcus stared.
Then smiled.
“Charles was already weak.”
Eleanor shouted:
“You changed his medication!”
Marcus turned toward her.
“And you spent seventeen years pretending you didn’t know.”
The microphone captured everything.
Sophie’s pulse raced.
Confession.
Partial.
But enough to support Kent.
Marcus opened the envelope.
Saw the fake microfilm.
His face changed.
“You think I’m stupid?”
He grabbed Eleanor.
Adrian moved.
A single shot struck the ceiling.
Police entered.
Marcus ran toward the hidden corridor.
Sophie knew where it exited.
The servants’ staircase.
She warned officers.
They intercepted him near the west gate.
Marcus fought.
Failed.
Within minutes, he was handcuffed on the marble floor.
Exactly where Sophie had stood while Bianca accused her.
Marcus looked up at her.
“You think this ends because I’m arrested?”
Sophie looked down at him.
“No.”
May you like
Then she glanced at the cameras.
“It ends because this time everything was recorded.”
