Chapter 8 - The Night Walter Disappeared|
The storm arrived just after sunset.
Thunder rolled across the hills surrounding the Santoro estate.
Rain struck the windows so hard that it sounded like handfuls of gravel.
I was carrying a basket of warm laundry upstairs when I noticed Walter's bedroom door standing open.
His bedside lamp was on.
The record player was silent.
His cane was missing.
At first, I assumed he had gone downstairs for dinner.
But when I reached the dining room, his chair was empty.
Elena was arranging silverware.
“Have you seen Mr. Walt?”
She shook her head.
“Not since afternoon tea.”
I glanced toward the windows.
A cold feeling settled in my stomach.
Walter hated thunderstorms.
He had told me Ruth used to sit beside him during bad weather because the sound reminded him of the nights he'd spent working at dangerous construction sites when he was young.
I checked the library.
Then the conservatory.
Then the little sitting room where he sometimes watched television.
Nothing.
By the time I found Adrian in his office, my heart was pounding.
“Mr. Santoro, I can't find your father.”
He stood immediately.
“When did you last see him?”
“About an hour ago.”
Adrian reached for his phone.
“Niko, locate my father.”
Within minutes, security guards began searching the estate.
I returned to Walter's bedroom.
Something on his bedside table caught my attention.
A folded piece of paper.
I picked it up.
The message was short.
Meet Adrian in the old greenhouse at seven.
He wants to talk privately.
There was no signature.
I stared at the paper.
Why would Adrian send Walter into the garden during a storm?
I hurried back downstairs.
“Mr. Santoro!”
Adrian met me near the staircase.
I handed him the note.
His expression changed instantly.
“I didn't write this.”
My stomach dropped.
“The greenhouse.”
Niko immediately contacted the guards stationed near the garden.
Nobody answered from the rear entrance.
Adrian grabbed a flashlight.
I followed him toward the kitchen doors.
“Rachel, stay inside.”
“But I know where Mr. Walt goes when he's upset.”
Adrian hesitated.
Then he looked at my belly.
“You're not going into this storm.”
I knew he was right.
But as Niko and Adrian hurried outside, I couldn't stop thinking about Walter standing alone somewhere in the rain.
Ten minutes passed.
Then twenty.
The lights flickered.
A security guard came running through the kitchen.
“We found his cane near the old greenhouse.”
My blood turned cold.
I grabbed my raincoat.
Elena caught my arm.
“Rachel, please.”
“I know another entrance.”
She looked frightened.
“Then tell them.”
I called Adrian.
The connection broke twice before he answered.
“Rachel?”
“There's a narrow service path behind the greenhouse.”
“I'm listening.”
“Ruth used to use it when she worked in the rose garden.”
Walter had shown it to me one afternoon.
He said his wife loved walking there because nobody interrupted her.
I explained where the path began.
Adrian told me to stay indoors.
But moments later, a security guard shouted that the garden gate had been forced open.
I stepped onto the covered rear terrace to see whether anyone was coming back.
Rain swept across the stone steps.
Then I heard something faint.
A man's voice.
“Help.”
My heart stopped.
The sound came from the side of the conservatory, where an old glass passage connected to the greenhouse.
“Mr. Walt?”
Another faint cry.
I shouted for the nearest guard.
Nobody answered.
I could see a weak light moving beyond the glass.
I took a few careful steps along the covered passage and found Walter sitting on the wet floor near a locked service door.
His cardigan was soaked.
His face was pale.
“Rachel?”
I hurried toward him.
“Oh, Mr. Walt!”
He looked up.
“I thought Adrian was coming.”
I knelt carefully beside him.
“It's okay.”
He began trembling.
“A man told me Adrian wanted to see me.”
“What man?”
Walter shook his head.
“I couldn't see his face.”
He looked down.
“He said I had to go with him.”
My stomach tightened.
“Go where?”
Walter swallowed.
“To the place where they wanted to send me.”
I took out my phone and called Adrian again.
“Found him!” I cried.
“He's near the side entrance!”
Adrian shouted something to Niko.
I tried to help Walter stand, but his legs were too weak.
“Don't move,” I told him.
“Help is coming.”
Walter looked at my belly.
“Rachel, you shouldn't be out here.”
I almost laughed.
Even frightened and soaked, he was worrying about me.
“Neither should you.”
He reached for my hand.
“Ruth always said I was stubborn.”
I squeezed his fingers.
“She was right.”
Then a sharp pain tightened across my abdomen.
I froze.
Another pain followed.
I placed my hand against my belly.
Walter noticed immediately.
“Rachel?”
I tried to smile.
“I'm okay.”
But the pain returned.
Stronger this time.
“Rachel, what's wrong?”
I couldn't answer.
Adrian appeared at the end of the passage with two guards.
He ran toward us.
“Dad!”
Walter began crying.
“I thought you wanted me to leave.”
Adrian knelt beside him.
“Never.”
Then he saw my face.
“Rachel?”
I was gripping the edge of the wall.
My breathing had become shallow.
Adrian looked at my belly.
“Are you hurt?”
“I don't know.”
Another tightening made me close my eyes.
“Something's wrong.”
Adrian's voice changed immediately.
“Niko, call an ambulance.”
Walter struggled to stand.
“Help her first.”
I shook my head.
“No, Mr. Walt—”
“Please,” he whispered.
“She's carrying Charlotte.”
Adrian took my hand.
“Rachel, look at me.”
I opened my eyes.
“We're getting you both to the hospital.”
I nodded, terrified.
Then Walter whispered something that made Adrian turn sharply toward him.
May you like
“The man who brought me out here had Julian's voice.”
And as thunder shook the windows, I realized that the people trying to steal Walter's future might have just endangered my daughter's as well.
