Chapter 14 - a stranger at the gates
By late afternoon, heavy dark clouds rolled over Chicago, unleashing a cold autumn downpour that hammered against the estate’s tall leaded glass windows. Despite the heightened security perimeter, a battered gray sedan glided up the winding driveway and came to a halt outside the main gates. The guards held the vehicle at gunpoint until the driver rolled down his window, revealing a disheveled man in an expensive yet rumpled suit. It was Mark Bennett—Claire’s estranged, gambling-addicted brother, known to the girls as "Uncle Mark."
Mark claimed he had critical information regarding the arson attack on Claire’s bakery and demanded an immediate audience with Adrien and his sister. Escorted into the grand library under heavy guard, Mark stood dripping rain onto the hardwood floor, shifting nervously from foot to foot. He looked around the opulent room with greedy eyes, his gaze lingering on the oil paintings and silver tea sets. Claire stood near the fireplace with her arms crossed, looking at her brother with deep disappointment and exhaustion. Mark had spent years draining her small savings with endless promises of reforming his life, only to gamble it away in underground dens.
Mark launched into a frantic speech, claiming that powerful men from the Vance family had approached him three days ago, offering to clear all his massive gambling debts if he provided details about Claire’s daily routine and the bakery's security locks. He insisted that he had refused to help them, but they had tracked Claire to the restaurant regardless. Now, Mark pleaded for Adrien’s protection and a substantial sum of money so he could flee the state before the Vance syndicate silenced him permanently for failing to report Claire's movement into the Moretti mansion.
While Adrien listened with a cold, calculating expression, the three little girls watched Uncle Mark from behind a high-backed leather sofa. Sophie flipped open her notebook, scanning her previous entries about Uncle Mark. She nudged Lily and whispered that Uncle Mark was lying because his left knee always twitched when he took money from mommy’s cash register. Lily narrowed her eyes, remembering how Uncle Mark had secretly picked up a set of spare keys from the bakery counter two days prior to the date.
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Leaving Emma with Kaiser, Lily and Sophie quietly crept out of the library and headed toward the guest parking garage where Mark’s car was parked under guard. Whispering to a sympathetic guard that they needed to retrieve a lost toy, Sophie used her small flashlight to peer into the back seat of Mark’s sedan. Squeezing her small hand beneath the driver's seat carpet, Lily pulled out a thick brown envelope stuffed with fresh stacks of hundred-dollar bills and a silver encrypted burner phone stamped with the Vance family crest.
Minutes later, as Mark was dramatically begging Claire for a check of fifty thousand dollars, the library door swung open. Lily and Sophie marched in like miniature prosecutors. Lily tossed the heavy brown envelope directly onto the mahogany table, while Sophie pointed her pink pen at her uncle with absolute authority. Sophie announced to the room that Uncle Mark had already been paid by the bad guys to burn mommy's bakery, and he had come to the mansion to sell the location of the children's bedrooms next. Mark’s face turned ghostly white as Adrien picked up the burner phone, his eyes turning into shards of black ice.
