Thomas Wren’s Confession
Chapter 10 - Thomas Wren’s Confession
Thomas surrendered his cuff links voluntarily.
“One was stolen from my room,” he said.
Security footage showed him entering the hospital wing the previous night, but the time stamp had been altered. A second camera placed him inside Vale House at the same hour.
Someone was manufacturing evidence.
Thomas asked to speak with Clara alone.
They met in the servants’ dining room where she had eaten hundreds of meals beneath a clock that ran four minutes fast. Thomas removed his butler’s coat and folded it over a chair.
“I helped Celeste take Vivienne from the nursery.”
Clara’s anger went cold.
He explained that Celeste told him Isabella had agreed to a private adoption to protect the family from scandal. Thomas drove the car without knowing about the planned fire. When flames appeared in the east wing, he returned and helped Rosa escape with Clara.
“Why did you stay with the family?”
“To watch Conrad. To find Isabella. To protect Vivienne when I could.”
“You watched me serve him breakfast.”
“Yes.”
Clara stood so quickly the chair struck the wall.
Thomas did not defend himself.
“I told myself waiting would produce proof,” he said. “Mostly, waiting produced more years.”
He gave her a small black notebook. It documented every suspicious payment, visitor, and order he had observed since the fire. One entry described a man named Warren Pike, Conrad’s private security chief.
W.
Pike controlled Vale House’s digital network, including Vivienne’s cloned phone and hospital camera access.
Before Clara could call investigators, the fire alarm sounded.
Smoke poured from the west garage. Security found Warren Pike’s office empty and his computers wiped. One vehicle was missing.
Pike had taken Isabella.
The hospital transfer occurred using a forged court order and an ambulance registered to a Vale subsidiary. By the time staff verified the document, the vehicle had disappeared.
Conrad publicly condemned the abduction.
Privately, he sent Clara a photograph of Isabella sitting inside a windowless room. A clock behind her showed the current time.
The message read:
SIGN AWAY THE TRUST, OR YOUR MOTHER DISAPPEARS AGAIN.
Vivienne entered as Clara stared at the screen.
For a moment, Clara wanted to hide it. She had spent her life surviving alone, making decisions before anyone could betray her.
Then she handed the phone to her sister.
Vivienne read the message and lifted her eyes.
“We do this together.”
May you like
Clara nodded.
For the first time, the word sister felt less like evidence and more like a promise.
