Chapter 13 - The Bait at the Mansion
Federal agents moved June and her grandchildren to a secure location.
Rachel refused to hide.
“He knows this house better than anyone,” Bell warned.
“So do I.”
Rachel proposed using the mansion as bait.
Daniel believed she still possessed Arthur’s original financial files. If she publicly announced that the files would be transferred the next morning, he might come for them.
Bell disliked the plan.
Rachel insisted.
For eleven years, Daniel had controlled every room by making her afraid of what might happen next.
She wanted him to enter a house that no longer belonged to him.
Agents installed hidden cameras and motion sensors.
Rachel sat alone in the bedroom after midnight.
The poisoned pillow had been removed.
A replacement rested beneath her head.
She left the wardrobe door slightly open.
At 1:43 a.m., the power failed.
Backup systems did not activate.
Daniel knew the mansion’s wiring.
Rachel heard glass break downstairs.
Footsteps moved through the hallway.
Slow.
Confident.
Daniel appeared in the doorway wearing dark clothing and a surgical mask.
“You always did look beautiful when you were frightened,” he said.
Rachel sat up.
“The files are in my father’s safe.”
“I know.”
He closed the door.
“No,” Rachel said. “You know where the old safe was.”
Daniel paused.
Arthur had installed a second safe before his death.
Rachel had discovered it in his office files.
She stood and moved toward the wardrobe.
Daniel drew a knife.
“Open it.”
“The safe isn’t here.”
“You’re lying.”
“I learned from you.”
Daniel’s patience snapped.
He grabbed her and pressed the knife against her ribs.
“Where are the files?”
Rachel looked toward the window.
“You should ask the woman in the SUV.”
Headlights flooded the bedroom.
Vanessa’s black SUV crashed through the garden doors below.
Daniel turned toward the sound.
Rachel struck the hidden panic switch inside the wardrobe.
Steel security shutters dropped over every exit.
The mansion locked itself from the inside.
Lights returned.
Federal agents appeared on the bedroom’s surveillance screens.
Daniel stared at Rachel.
“You trapped us both.”
She looked directly into his eyes.
“No. I trapped you.”
Then smoke began pouring through the air vent.
Daniel smiled.
May you like
“You forgot who designed the ventilation system.”
👉 Rachel had locked Daniel inside the mansion, but he had already released enough poison into the air to kill everyone entering to save her.
