Chapter 8
The bank entered lockdown.
Steel doors sealed the vault while police searched the building.
Holly pressed against me.
“Is Aunt Paige coming for me?”
“She won’t reach you.”
A crash shook the parking level.
Paige had driven the stolen patrol car through a security barrier.
She entered wearing a guard’s uniform and used a stolen badge to reach the executive floor.
Detective Ortiz ordered us to remain inside the vault.
Then the lights went out.
Emergency power should have activated immediately.
It did not.
Paige knew the building’s systems because Gene had made her a director years earlier.
A voice came through the darkness.
“Holly?”
Paige was outside the vault.
“Open the door. Grandma needs your help.”
Brandon stood between the entrance and our daughter.
“You are not taking her.”
“I didn’t want any of this!”
“You broke into our home.”
“Mother said Holly would steal from my children.”
“You watched Mother steal from all of them.”
Paige began crying.
“I have nothing left.”
“You still have children who need you to stop.”
The vault door opened several inches.
Paige had activated a mechanical override.
Detective Ortiz raised her weapon.
Paige held a pistol in one hand and an object wrapped in cloth in the other.
“Put the gun down,” Ortiz ordered.
Paige unwrapped the object.
It was a ceramic container with wires taped around it.
“If anyone moves, the bank disappears.”
Holly whimpered.
Brandon kept his body in front of hers.
“What do you want?”
“The tablet.”
“It has already copied everything to state servers.”
Paige’s face collapsed.
“Mother said it was the only evidence.”
“She lied to you again.”
“No.”
“She sent you into a bank with a bomb while she remained safely in jail.”
Paige looked down at the device.
For the first time, doubt replaced rage.
I noticed the wires were not connected to a trigger.
The object might be fake.
Detective Ortiz saw it too.
“Paige, place it on the floor.”
“I can’t go to prison.”
“You can still walk away from this room without hurting your brother or Holly.”
Holly stepped around Brandon.
“Aunt Paige?”
“No,” I whispered.
She held up the red Christmas card she had kept inside her coat.
ACCESS REVOKED.
“You can’t come into my family and hurt people anymore.”
Paige stared at the handwriting.
Her gun lowered.
Detective Ortiz moved quickly. She disarmed Paige and pulled her away from the device.
The bomb squad confirmed it was fake.
Gene had convinced her daughter to risk dying or being shot for evidence that already existed in multiple places.
Paige finally agreed to testify.
She revealed that Gene replaced Arthur’s medication over several months. Samuel altered pharmacy records, while Martin disposed of the original bottles.
Arthur realized what was happening and prepared the wooden bird, letters, and bank tablet before he died.
He chose Holly because Gene overlooked her.
The child Gene treated as a guest became the one person holding enough truth to expose her.
Gene was charged with Arthur’s murder.
At the arraignment, she refused to look at Brandon.
Instead, she stared at Holly.
“She poisoned you against me.”
Holly held my hand.
“My mommy taught me not to eat poison.”
The courtroom became silent.
Gene’s attorney requested a mental evaluation, arguing she could not understand the charges.
The judge ordered an independent examination but refused to delay the trial indefinitely.
Outside, Owen waited near our car.
His presence frightened Holly until he lifted both hands and remained several feet away.
“I came to return something.”
He placed Melissa’s original letters on the hood.
Gene had kept them as leverage.
One contained a photograph of newborn Holly and a message from Melissa.
You do not have to be ready. You only have to decide whether our daughter deserves to know you tried.
Owen cried.
“I never tried.”
Holly did not comfort him.
She simply said, “Brandon did.”
Then she climbed into our car.
Owen accepted a prison sentence for kidnapping and fraud.
Before entering custody, he gave Detective Ortiz one final piece of evidence.
Gene had purchased false passports for herself and Samuel.
The passports listed Holly as Gene’s dependent child.
Their escape plan included taking her out of the country.
A departure date was printed on the reservation.
May you like
Christmas Eve.
Gene had planned Holly’s disappearance before giving her the candle.
