Chapter 8 - THE ROOM UNDER THE CHAPEL
The old Cole chapel had been abandoned for nearly twenty years.
Nathan remembered funerals there.
Julian’s among them.
His father’s memorial before the larger burial.
Thomas Miller’s empty service.
Too many dead people.
The stone building sat deep inside the northern woods of the original Cole property.
Nathan arrived with Grace and six men.
No sirens.
No outsiders.
Cole business stayed Cole business until there was no choice.
The front door stood open.
Inside, candles burned.
Fresh.
Grace whispered:
“They’re expecting us.”
“Yes.”
Nathan held Julian’s ring.
Near the altar was a small black square carved into the floor.
One chair inside.
He pressed the ring against it.
Stone clicked.
A narrow staircase appeared behind the altar.
Grace looked at him.
“You knew?”
“No.”
They descended.
The room beneath the chapel was circular.
Black wooden table.
Seven chairs.
No decoration.
No papers.
No trophies.
Only knife marks along the table’s edge and generations of smoke staining the ceiling.
The Black Table.
Nathan stood where his father must have stood.
He hated the familiarity of it.
Grace moved toward one chair.
Initials carved beneath the arm.
T.M.
Thomas Miller.
She froze.
“My father sat here.”
Nathan looked at the others.
A.C.
Arthur Cole.
R.H.
Richard Hayes.
M.R.
Marcus Reed.
E.C.
Edwin Cole.
Two chairs carried no initials.
Grace touched Thomas’s.
“He wasn’t just investigating them.”
“No.”
“He was one of them.”
The revelation hurt her.
Nathan understood.
Parents always left sharper ghosts.
A sound came from behind them.
Clapping.
Slow.
One person.
Nathan turned.
Evelyn Shaw stood near another passage.
Alone.
No Lily.
Grace stepped forward.
“Where is she?”
Evelyn’s face looked older than it had an hour earlier.
“Safe.”
Nathan’s voice was quiet.
“Bring her.”
“I can’t.”
“Wrong answer.”
Evelyn looked at Grace.
“I’m sorry.”
Grace nearly lunged.
Nathan blocked her.
“Why?”
Evelyn looked toward Thomas’s chair.
“My husband died because of this table.”
Nathan knew Evelyn had been widowed fifteen years.
Her husband Michael Shaw supposedly died during a warehouse robbery.
Another convenient death.
“He was one of Marcus Reed’s men,” Evelyn said.
“He tried to leave.”
Nathan stared.
“Black Table killed him?”
“Arthur ordered it.”
Grace looked sick.
Evelyn continued.
“I stayed because Thomas promised me the Table would end.”
Grace whispered:
“My father.”
“Yes.”
“He was one of them.”
“He joined to destroy it from inside.”
That changed the chair.
Not absolution.
Context.
“What happened?”
“Thomas found Julian alive.”
Nathan stared.
“He believed Julian could expose Arthur.”
“And?”
“Arthur found out.”
Grace’s eyes filled.
“Did Arthur kill my father?”
Evelyn looked at her.
“No.”
“Who?”
“Edwin.”
The name again.
Nathan’s jaw tightened.
“Where is Lily?”
Evelyn’s eyes shifted.
Nathan saw fear.
“Edwin has her.”
Grace nearly collapsed.
Nathan became still.
“Where?”
“I don’t know.”
“You took her.”
“My niece did.”
“On your order.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“To keep Edwin from sending someone worse.”
Nathan stared.
That was twisted enough to be true.
“You kidnapped my daughter to protect her from kidnapping.”
Evelyn’s eyes filled.
“Yes.”
Nathan almost laughed.
The old sickness again.
Protection through betrayal.
“Why bring the ring?”
“Because the room behind Edwin’s chair only opens with Julian’s signet.”
Nathan looked at E.C.
Edwin’s chair.
Behind it, almost invisible, was a narrow black door.
Nathan inserted Julian’s ring into a slot.
The mechanism opened.
Inside was not Lily.
A staircase descended farther.
Grace whispered:
“How deep does this go?”
Nathan looked into darkness.
“Deep enough for my father to hide a family.”
They went down.
At the bottom was another room.
One cot.
One table.
Old restraints fixed to a stone wall.
Grace covered her mouth.
Nathan understood.
People had been kept here.
Family.
Enemies.
Maybe Julian.
On the wall, scratched by hand:
NATHAN WILL BECOME ARTHUR IF THEY BREAK HIM FIRST.
Nathan stared.
Julian’s handwriting.
He knew it from childhood.
Below it:
DO NOT LET HIM MARRY HAYES.
Victoria.
Grace read.
Then another line.
THE CHILD CHANGES EVERYTHING.
Nathan’s breathing slowed.
Last line:
IF LILY RETURNS, EDWIN HAS ALREADY LOST CONTROL.
Grace whispered:
“Julian knew her name.”
Three years ago.
Maybe longer.
Nathan looked toward the far wall.
A recent photograph was pinned there.
Lily.
Grace.
Taken two weeks ago.
Beside it was another.
Victoria wearing Nathan’s engagement ring.
Then a third.
Edwin Cole sitting in his garden.
Someone had marked a black X across Edwin’s face.
May you like
Nathan whispered:
“Julian is hunting him.”
