All Chapters of MARRIED TO MY MOTHER’S KILLER : Chapter 61 - Chapter 70

Nobody moved.Eliam stared at the message in Marcus’s hand.If Eliam ever finds this, tell him I was alive after the shooting.For twenty-one years, he had believed his mother died that night.He had remembered the gunshot.The screaming.His father’s hands pulling him away from the window.The endless explanations afterward.His mother was gone.There had never been another possibility.Until now.“Read it again,” he said.Marcus looked at the paper.“Eliam…”“Read it.”Marcus did.Eliam closed his eyes.His breathing became uneven.Avaline watched him carefully.“Eliam?”He opened his eyes.“She was alive.”His voice barely sounded like his own.“She was alive, and they told me she was dead.”Eleanor’s expression tightened.“I told you what I was told.”“You knew she survived.”“I suspected.”“You suspected?”His voice rose.“You knew enough to alter the report.”Eleanor didn’t answer.Eliam stepped toward her.“How long?”“I don’t know.”“How long did she survive?”Eleanor looked a

The room stayed silent after Samuel’s call ended.Eliam stared at the dark screen of Marcus’s laptop, his jaw locked so tightly it hurt.“He admitted it,” Avaline whispered.Eliam looked at her. “He admitted he found my mother alive.”Marcus nodded slowly. “And he admitted he left her.”“But he said someone else ordered him,” Luca added. “He sounded afraid.”Eliam’s eyes hardened. “Then we find out who.”Marcus turned back to the computer. “I might already have a way.”He opened the encrypted files recovered from Elena’s music box. Most were corrupted, but one folder had survived intact.Its name was ASHES.Marcus clicked it, and a video appeared. The timestamp was dated seventeen years earlier, on the night Elena disappeared.Eliam stopped breathing.“Play it.”The screen flickered before Elena appeared.She was pale and frightened, but alive. Her face was bruised, and one side of her blouse was stained with blood. She looked directly into the camera as though she knew exactly who mi

Eliam stared at the recovered access log.The discovery that the old security camera had been inside Blackwood International had already changed everything. Elena had not simply been attacked by outsiders. Someone inside the company had known where she was, had access to the security system, and had been in a position to conceal what happened afterward.Marcus enlarged the footage again.“The camera was connected to the executive security network,” he explained. “Unfortunately, the system was replaced years ago, so most of the original access records were destroyed.”“Most?” Eliam asked.Marcus nodded. “Some backups survived. I’m trying to recover them now.”Luca folded his arms. “And how long will that take?”“An hour if I’m lucky.”Eliam’s attention returned to Gideon Cross.“Find everything you can about him.”Marcus opened an old personnel database.“Gideon served the Blackwood family for twenty-two years. He supervised estate security, corporate protection, and emergency response

The library doors opened slowly.Luca stepped in front of Gabriella’s absence from the room, his hand resting near his weapon as the figure entered.It was Samuel Pierce.Eliam’s jaw tightened.Samuel looked completely calm, as though he had walked into the library for an ordinary meeting rather than into a room filled with people who had just uncovered evidence connecting him to Elena’s death.“You shouldn’t have come here,” Samuel said.Eliam took one step forward.“You had seventeen years to tell me the truth.”Samuel’s eyes moved to Eleanor.“And you had seventeen years to keep him alive.”Eleanor’s expression hardened.“I did what I could.”“No,” Samuel replied. “You did what you thought was necessary.”Marcus quietly moved the laptop behind his back.Samuel noticed.“There’s no point hiding it.”“What do you want?” Avaline asked.Samuel looked at her.“That’s the question you should be asking yourself.”Eliam’s eyes narrowed.“You’re the one who accessed the security system.”“Y

Samuel led them through the oldest section of Blackwood International.The building was almost empty now. Most employees had gone home hours earlier, unaware that the company they worked for was standing on the edge of a war that had begun decades before they were born.Luca walked ahead with his weapon drawn.Marcus followed with the laptop pressed against his chest.Eliam stayed beside Avaline.Eleanor and Samuel walked behind them.Nobody spoke.At the end of the corridor, Samuel stopped beside an ordinary wooden panel.“There.”Marcus frowned.“That is a wall.”Samuel placed his hand against a small section of molding.A hidden lock clicked.The panel moved.A narrow staircase appeared behind it.Eliam stared into the darkness.“How many times have you been down there?”“Enough to know I should never have returned.”They descended.The air grew colder with every step.At the bottom was a steel door.Samuel entered a code.The door opened.The room beyond looked nothing like the re