CHAPTER 30
“This is my chance to do the right thing—to sacrifice myself for others…”
ISABELLE CAMPBELL
I told Hanna to close her eyes and covered her ears the moment we left the house, told her it was a game we were playing. My mother stared at me in panic.
We were in one of Colin’s security cars. The two guards sat up front, and behind their seats were three henchmen—two of them holding a gun to the guards’ backs.
“Any funny business and everyone dies!” this time it was the one who looked like their boss, the man in the middle with no weapon in his hands, who barked the warning.
We were packed in tight—six of us in the back seat.
In a few minutes we were at Colin’s mansion. The car windows were heavily tinted; from the outside you could barely see anything.
Right in front of the main gate, one of the mansion guards waved the driver to lower his window. That’s standard procedure to enter.
“Lower it just enough so he can see you—otherwise we’ll have big problems. You can bet on that. If they ask why you came back, say your boss ordered it. If you don’t, the women die right here in front of you.”
After the car stopped, one of the guards rolled the window down.
“Something happen that made you come back?” he asked.
“Colin asked. It was a direct order,” the driver said, his voice steady.
“All right.”
The gates opened and we were allowed through.
The next fifteen minutes flashed by in my head.
Almost everyone in the house had been subdued, but everything was done in an eerie silence. Two of the three men searched the mansion while the other stayed with the household staff.
I didn’t see Colin at first and assumed he was in his room.
A few minutes later I saw him walking toward us with one of the henchmen behind him, a gun pressed to his back.
Our children were blindfolded but remained beside us the whole time. I couldn’t understand why they were kept with us, though both Colin and I kept covering their ears. They didn’t need to go through this; this would scar them.
“Mom, when will this game end?” Hanna asked.
“What’s going on?” Joshua demanded.
“It’s okay, Hanna,” I said, lowering my hands from her ears.
“Buddy, it’ll be over soon,” Colin said, doing the same.
“Jay, take everyone to the gym and lock them in—except these,” he pointed at me, Colin, Hanna, and Joshua. “If anyone tries anything funny, you’re authorized to kill the jokester.”
Even the head of security was among those ordered around, and from what I could tell Colin had been used somehow to keep the other guards from reacting.
“What are you planning with all this?” Colin intervened, making a movement as if to step toward the man.
“Easy now!” The gun was shoved into his chest. “I’m the one talking here—so you keep quiet.”
“What do you want?”
“What are you most afraid of, Colin. That’s your name, right?”
Colin didn’t answer—he just looked toward us, where I sat clinging to Hanna.
“Hmm. I see.” The man smiled. “Jeremy, bring the kids and the woman closer.”
“No! Stay away from them!” Jeremy shouted, terrified, stepping in front of us.
“And who do you think you are to say that?” the man snapped.
“They have nothing to do with this.”
“So what?” the man I guessed was the boss said. “I’m interested in other things. This mansion is a goldmine.” He looked around, impressed. “And you’re wrong—I wouldn’t have gotten to you without Isabelle.”
All of this was because of the debt Rudolph had run up.
I bowed my head, shaken.
“Isabelle!” Colin’s voice called out. “It’s not your fault. Everything will be okay,” he tried to reassure me.
The man shook his head as if he were amused by the whole situation.
“I saw an opportunity in all this. I watched your movements for a while and learned the routines of the people who come here. The hard part was getting in, but since your guards were posted day and night in front of Isabelle’s house, I just needed to bring them back here.”
“Who are you?”
“My name’s Marcos, and the one who’s going to pay your boyfriend’s debt is you.”
“Take whatever you want and leave.”
Marcos seemed completely in control—he showed no sign of nervousness.
“Oh, that’s not going to happen.”
While one of the henchmen watched us, Marcos tried to make small talk with Colin.
“I looked you up, Colin. Your wife and daughter died in an accident. How awful, huh?” he sneered, and I could see anger flare in his eyes.
“They don’t have to be here,” Colin said through his teeth.
“Oh, but they do. From what I’ve seen, you care about them. Bring the little girl here, Isabelle!”
“No! She’s not coming!” Colin positioned himself in front of us.
“I’m not asking again.”
“She’s not coming!” he shouted, his voice rising.
“Then bring the boy!”
Colin pushed Joshua behind him but still kept covering his ears.
“Hm.”
“How about you?” he pointed at me.
“Isabelle, get behind me! Now!”
I did as he said.
“Mom, what’s going on? I can hear people shouting,” Hanna said.
“It’s part of the game, sweetheart. Stay quiet, please,” I whispered close to her ear.
“Okay.”
Joshua seemed calmer—just shaking his head from side to side, oblivious to what was unfolding right in front of him.
“I’ll count to three. If any of them don’t come, you’ll be the one to pay the price, Colin!”
Colin said nothing at first.
“One!”
“That’s not necessary.”
“Two!”
The man ignored his comment.
“Colin, I’m gonna—”
“Don’t you dare!” he snapped at me.
“Last chance!”
No one spoke after that.
“Three!”
“Forgive me for everything, Isabelle.”
After he said that, a gunshot echoed through the living room...
The children were terrified after the gunshot. My heart was racing.
I looked at Colin—he was standing, with no visible injury.
Thank God.
“You’ve got guts, man! I like it!”
Colin looked around, then glanced at where the bullet had lodged. The shot had been aimed at the sofa, not at the three of us.
As I crouched, Colin grabbed me, telling me with his eyes to stay standing.
“Dad, I’m scared. What was that loud noise?” Joshua asked.
Colin hesitated for a moment, then crouched down to his son’s level. After that he looked at me differently—like he had a plan—but Marcos still held the gun, and any wrong move would be far too risky.
Stealing a glance, Colin uncovered his son’s ears and said, “Remember the secret passage, Joshua? We used to play there with your sister. Finding her is part of the game.”
Joshua nodded.
“It’s safe there. When I say so, I need you to go—”
“Get out of there now and stop whispering to the kid!” Marcos shouted, cutting him off. Joshua flinched, but Colin covered his ears again and stood up.
“Jeremy, search the mansion, and mark every place with high-value items, like we agreed yesterday,” he told his henchman, who was watching us from a distance.
“Yes, boss.”
We were all on edge.
Marcos strolled through the living room, fiddling with objects and smiling most of the time.
“I’m going to profit big. That bitch just led me to a goldmine,” he sneered.
Colin stepped forward, but I grabbed his arm.
“Don’t—let him talk!” I hissed, trying to hold Colin back so he wouldn’t react to the provocation. If he did, it would be the end for us.
“Well… since Jeremy and Jay are taking their sweet time, I see there are plenty of valuable things in this mansion. We’re going to have ourselves a party…”
As Marcos turned slightly, Colin lunged at him, knocking him down.
The men grappled, but the revolver was still in Marcos’s hand and Colin fought to wrest it away at all costs. They were about the same size and strength; neither had the upper hand.
“Run to my room and use the code, Joshua! Quick!” Colin shouted.
I understood and bolted with the two kids. After we cleared the hallway I pulled the blindfolds off them. When I looked back, what I heard next—
A shot rang out, and I caught a glimpse of Colin falling to the side, writhing in obvious pain.
“Go, Isabelle!” he managed to say, struggling.
The next thing I knew, I was running through the mansion with the two children...
“What was that noise, Isabelle?”
“Where’s the secret room your dad mentioned?” I asked, breathless as we ran, ignoring Joshua’s question. The only thing that mattered was getting to safety as fast as possible.
“It’s inside his bedroom.”
That was the opposite direction from where we were headed.
I tried to cut through another hallway, but about twenty meters ahead I spotted one of Marcos’s men standing right in front of us. The gunshot must’ve alerted him.
“Who’s that man, Mommy?”
I ignored my daughter too, grabbed both their hands, and ran the other way. Before turning the corner, I looked back—the man was smiling, walking toward us. He knew we had nowhere to run. Or at least he thought so.
This is my fault. All of it. Because of Rudolph’s damn debt. But I can’t think about that now—I have to protect the kids. Colin put himself in danger for us.
Colin…
I couldn’t stop thinking about the sound of the gunshot, terrified of not knowing where he’d been hit—or how bad it was. I needed to come up with something, fast.
We rushed into Colin’s bedroom, and I locked the door behind us.
“Where’s the place your dad was talking about, Joshua?” I asked, my voice trembling.
“Oh, it’s here!”
It was the same spot I’d been in days ago, where Colin worked on his projects—but back then, I hadn’t noticed it required a code to open.
“The password’s my dad’s birthday—December tenth. I think it’s one-two-one-zero.”
I punched it in quickly, but it didn’t work.
He must’ve changed it.
“Do you remember any other password, Joshua?”
“No! That’s the only one I know, Isabelle!”
“I’m gonna find you…” one of the men sang down the hallway, his voice echoing closer.
“Is this part of the game, Mommy?”
I didn’t answer.
Think, think, think!
“Let’s try it backward.”
I typed one-zero-one-two. The door instantly clicked open, and we slipped inside.
At least for now, we were safe.