CHAPTER 39: The Man Behind The Curtain

The words hollowed the room.

Victor wasn’t the one who killed him.

For a moment, even the fire above them seemed distant.

Ethan stared at Eva without moving.

Aria felt the shift beside her immediately.

Not shock.

Something worse.

Old suspicion becoming possible truth.

Daniel frowned sharply. “What are you talking about?”

Eva looked toward Ethan carefully.

“Your father knew someone else was involved after the accident.”

Smoke drifted thicker through the underground chamber now, curling along the ceiling while distant cracks thundered overhead.

Still nobody moved.

Because suddenly the story had changed again.

Victor slowly straightened.

“What someone?”

Eva’s eyes darkened faintly.

“The person who orchestrated everything.”

Silence.

Aria’s pulse quickened painfully.

“What does that mean?”

Eva looked at her for a long moment before answering.

“The accident wasn’t random.”

The chamber froze.

Even Victor looked unsettled by that sentence.

Ethan’s jaw tightened visibly.

“You’re saying someone caused the crash intentionally.”

Eva nodded once.

“Yes.”

Daniel let out a quiet curse under his breath.

Aria shook her head slowly.

“No. No, wait.” Her breathing unevened. “You said you were running away.”

“I was.”

“Then how could the crash be planned?”

Eva’s expression became grim.

“Because somebody knew we were leaving.”

A violent crack echoed overhead.

Dust rained from the ceiling beams again.

But Aria barely noticed.

Her thoughts were spiraling too fast now.

Someone knew.

Someone arranged the crash.

Someone hunted them afterward.

And Ethan’s father died because he discovered the truth.

The realization crawled coldly down her spine.

Victor looked toward Eva sharply.

“You think I had the car followed.”

“You did.”

“That doesn’t mean I caused the accident.”

The distinction hung heavily in the room.

Because strangely enough… it sounded honest.

Victor looked furious now.

Not defensive.

Offended.

Like a man accused of the wrong crime.

Ethan noticed too.

“You didn’t know.”

Victor’s eyes snapped toward him.

“I wanted them brought home.” His voice hardened dangerously. “Alive.”

Aria watched him carefully.

And against her will, she believed him.

Not because he was innocent.

But because his obsession had always been about possession.

Dead things couldn’t belong to him.

Eva seemed to realize the same thing.

Her anger shifted subtly.

Not disappearing.

Refocusing.

“There was another car behind us that night,” she said quietly.

Aria felt her chest tighten.

“You remember it?”

Eva nodded faintly.

“Black sedan. No headlights for most of the drive.” Her gaze turned distant. “At first I thought it belonged to Victor.”

Victor’s face hardened.

“It didn’t.”

Another silence fell.

Dangerous now.

Because if Victor didn’t orchestrate the crash…

Then who did?

Daniel spoke carefully.

“Who else knew you were leaving?”

Eva hesitated.

Then looked toward Ethan.

“Your father.”

The answer hit hard.

Ethan’s expression barely shifted, but Aria felt tension radiate sharply from him.

“He helped arrange transportation,” Eva continued. “Fake documents. Cash.” Her eyes lowered briefly. “He was trying to help us disappear before Victor found out.”

Victor laughed once bitterly.

“And somehow I’m still the villain in this story.”

“You locked her inside a mansion.”

Victor’s gaze turned icy.

“She was mentally unstable.”

Eva stepped toward him immediately.

“No.” Her voice sharpened like broken glass. “I was terrified because people around you kept dying.”

Silence detonated through the chamber.

Aria’s heartbeat stumbled.

Victor went still.

Completely still.

Ethan’s eyes narrowed slightly.

“What people?”

Eva looked between them slowly.

Then:

“Your business partner.” She looked at Victor. “The journalist investigating your offshore accounts.” Her voice lowered. “And the woman who tried helping me contact police.”

The fire above groaned louder now.

The estate itself sounded like it was dying around them.

Still, nobody interrupted.

Victor’s expression had shifted from anger into something darker.

Memory.

“You think I killed them.”

“I think people disappeared whenever they became inconvenient.”

Victor stared at her for a long moment.

Then quietly said:

“I didn’t kill anyone.”

The room fell silent again.

And somehow that sentence felt important.

Not because it proved innocence.

Because for the first time, Victor sounded tired.

Not manipulative.

Not controlled.

Tired.

Aria suddenly realized something horrifying.

Maybe everyone here had spent twenty years blaming each other while the real threat remained hidden.

The possibility chilled her instantly.

Ethan took the metal box gently from Aria’s trembling hands and began flipping through the files rapidly.

Then stopped.

His expression darkened immediately.

“What is it?” Aria asked.

He pulled out an old photograph.

Several men stood together outside a corporate building decades earlier.

Victor.

Ethan’s father.

And a third man Aria didn’t recognize.

Tall.

Gray-haired.

Smiling calmly at the camera.

Ethan’s face went cold.

“No.”

Victor saw the photograph and swore quietly.

Daniel frowned. “Who is that?”

Nobody answered immediately.

Then Victor finally said the name like something poisonous.

“Richard Thorne.”

The air shifted.

Even Eva looked unsettled.

Aria frowned. “Who is he?”

Ethan’s voice turned dangerously flat.

“He used to run Blackwood International with my father.”

Victor added quietly:

“Until he disappeared after the accident.”

Another crack thundered overhead.

Smoke thickened rapidly now.

Daniel looked upward sharply.

“We need to leave.”

But Ethan kept staring at the photograph.

“Richard died fifteen years ago.”

Eva shook her head slowly.

“No,” she whispered. “That’s what he wanted everyone to believe.”

Aria’s pulse spiked.

“What?”

Eva stepped closer toward the photograph.

“After the crash, your father discovered Richard had been laundering money through Victor’s companies.” She looked toward Ethan. “When he threatened to expose him, Richard started eliminating anyone connected to the investigation.”

The room felt suddenly too small.

Too hot.

Too dangerous.

Aria stared at the photograph again.

The smiling man now looked monstrous somehow.

“You think he caused the accident to cover his tracks?”

Eva nodded once.

“And when your father helped me escape with Rory…” Her voice trembled faintly. “Richard realized the child survived.”

Ethan’s expression sharpened instantly.

“He’s been looking for her too.”

The answer came quietly.

“Yes.”

Aria’s blood ran cold.

Not just Victor.

Not just old family trauma.

Someone else had been searching for her all these years.

Someone willing to kill for silence.

Then suddenly, from somewhere above them, a loud explosion ripped through the estate.

The underground chamber shook violently.

Lights flickered.

Stone cracked.

Daniel grabbed Aria immediately.

“We’re out of time.”

Smoke poured through the ceiling now in thick waves.

Victor moved toward the staircase fast.

“Move!”

But before they could reach it, another sound echoed through the chamber.

Not collapsing stone.

Not fire.

Applause.

Slow.

Measured.

Everyone froze.

The sound came from the darkness beyond the shelves.

Then a man’s voice emerged calmly through the smoke.

“It took all of you remarkably long to figure it out.”