ONE MONTH WITH THE DEVIL

Chapter 34

The doorknob turned slowly, and for one moment, everything seemed to stop.

Victor quickly stepped in front of me. His body was tense, and his voice was low but firm.

"Stay behind me. Don't say anything unless I tell you to."

The door opened.

But it wasn't Charles standing there.

It was Richard.

Victor's father stood in the doorway, his face difficult to read. His eyes moved from Victor to me, then to the open envelope, the torn letter, and the flashlight shaking in my hand.

He stepped inside and quietly closed the door.

"You're lucky it was me," he said. "Charles is downstairs, checking every room. If he had found you here, he wouldn't have asked questions. He would have taken whatever he wanted and made sure nobody could find you again."

"You're helping us?" Victor asked in surprise. "After everything you said about Lara? After telling me to stay away from her?"

Richard looked at his son.

For the first time, I didn't see the cold businessman everyone feared. Instead, I saw a father who had made many wrong choices while trying to do what he thought was right.

"I was wrong about many things," he admitted roughly. "Your father, Edward, was a good man. Better than me and better than Charles. I watched him walk away from everything because he refused to be part of their dirty business. I should have stood beside him, but I didn't."

He paused and looked at Victor.

"I won't make that mistake again."

Richard walked toward one of the shelves. He reached behind a pile of old books and pulled out a small metal box with a lock.

He placed it on the table between us.

"Edward didn't trust many people, not even me. But he knew Charles would never imagine that a Vance would keep his secrets. He left this here a week before he became sick."

My heart began to race.

"What did he leave inside?" I asked.

Richard looked at me.

"He told me that if anything ever happened to him, I should give this to the person who deserved to know the truth most."

He unlocked the box.

Inside was a thick folder and a letter.

My breath caught when I saw it.

It was the missing part of the letter I had found in the envelope.

Richard picked it up and handed it to me.

With trembling fingers, I unfolded it and began to read.

If you're reading this, then Charles knows.

Go to the old chapel on the west road. Look beneath the third stone from the door. What I left there will prove the truth.

Stay together. Trust the person standing beside you.

And Lara, don't be afraid to let someone help you carry the weight.

My throat tightened as I read the final sentence.

Dad had known that someone might come looking for his secrets. He had prepared for this moment, even though he couldn't have known exactly when it would happen.

"He knew," I whispered. "All this time, he knew someone would come looking."

Richard nodded.

"He also believed Victor would be the one standing beside you."

I looked at him in surprise.

"Why?"

"Edward always said you and Victor were more alike than people realized. You were both stubborn, brave, and willing to stand up for what you believed in, even when it cost you something."

A strange feeling filled my chest.

Even before I understood what was happening between Victor and me, our fathers had somehow seen a connection between us.

Richard suddenly turned toward the door.

Footsteps echoed from the stairs below. They were louder and closer than before.

Charles was coming.

Richard quickly took the folder and placed it in Victor's hands.

"You need to leave. Now."

"But what about you?" Victor asked.

"I'll keep Charles busy for as long as I can."

Richard moved toward the window and opened it. Cold air rushed into the room.

"Climb out. The ivy on the wall is strong enough to hold you. I've seen your grandfather climb it many times."

Victor looked outside, then back at his father.

"Are you sure?"

"There's no time to argue."

Richard placed a hand on Victor's shoulder. His expression softened, and his voice became quieter.

"Victor, protect her. Not because you feel you have to, but because she deserves someone who will stand beside her."

Victor said nothing.

"And don't make the same mistake I made," Richard continued. "Don't let your pride stop you from telling people what they mean to you."

For a moment, father and son simply looked at each other.

Then Victor nodded.

He took my hand and led me toward the window.

I climbed onto the narrow ledge, my heart pounding as I looked down. The ground seemed much farther away than it had from inside the room.

Victor climbed out after me and helped me find a safe place to hold on.

The night air felt cold against my face, but his hand around mine was warm and steady.

We climbed down as quickly as we could.

Just as our feet touched the ground, we heard Charles shouting angrily somewhere inside the house.

We didn't wait to find out what had happened.

Victor pulled me into the shadows, and we hurried away from the building.

We kept running until we crossed the main road and the Vance house was far behind us.

Only then did Victor slow down.

He was still holding my hand.

"My dad has changed," he said quietly. "I never thought he was capable of doing something like that for us."

I looked at him.

"People aren't always just one thing, Victor."

He glanced at me.

"Your dad was hard on you because he was afraid. Maybe he thought controlling everything would keep you safe. He didn't know how to show you what he really felt."

I paused before continuing.

"But tonight, he made a choice to do the right thing. That has to count for something."

Victor looked down at our joined hands.

"Maybe it does."

We continued walking toward the old chapel.

---

Twenty minutes later, we reached our destination.

The chapel stood alone near the woods. Its walls were old and weathered, and parts of the building looked as if they might fall apart at any moment.

I had passed the road leading to it before, but I had never imagined that my father's secrets were hidden there.

Victor switched on his phone flashlight while I knelt beside the doorway.

"Third stone from the door," I murmured.

I counted carefully, then ran my fingers along the edge of the third stone.

It moved slightly.

My heart began to race.

I pushed it aside and looked into the small space beneath it.

Something was hidden there.

I carefully reached inside and pulled out a package wrapped in waterproof plastic.

Inside was a USB drive and a small notebook.

I recognized the handwriting on the notebook immediately.

It was Dad's.

For a moment, I could barely breathe.

I sat back on my heels, holding the items carefully in both hands. They felt precious, as if they contained the last pieces of a man I had lost long before I was ready to say goodbye.

"He kept fighting," I whispered. "Even when he was alone. Even when nobody knew what he was going through."

Victor knelt beside me and gently wrapped an arm around my shoulders.

"He didn't leave you to fight alone, Lara. He left you proof. He gave you a chance to discover the truth."

He looked into my eyes.

"And I'm here too. We're going to finish this together."

I leaned against him for a moment, allowing myself to feel the comfort of having someone beside me.

For so long, I had believed that protecting the people I loved meant keeping my problems to myself.

But Dad had left me clues because he wanted the truth to come out. And Victor had risked everything to help me find it.

I couldn't keep pushing him away.

Not anymore.

I looked down at the notebook and turned it over in my hands.

Something slipped from between its pages and landed on the ground.

I frowned and picked it up.

It was a small piece of folded paper I hadn't noticed before.

I opened it under the light of Victor's phone.

Two short sentences were written on it in a hurried hand.

Charles isn't working alone.

He has someone inside the school. Someone who watches everything you do. Be careful who you trust.

I read the words again, hoping I had misunderstood them.

But they remained the same.

I felt the warmth leave my face.

Someone at school was helping Charles.

Someone who saw me every day.

Someone who might know where I went, who I spoke to, and what I was trying to discover.

Victor leaned closer and read the message.

His expression changed immediately.

"Someone inside the school," he murmured. "This means Charles has someone close enough to watch you."

My mind began racing through the faces of everyone I knew.

Xander.

Maya.

My classmates.

The people I spoke to between lectures and the ones who seemed to know things before I told them.

Could one of them really be helping Charles?

Maya had stood beside me through everything. Xander had helped me discover some of Charles's lies. I wanted to believe they were innocent, but the note made it difficult to trust anyone completely.

"Who could it be?" I whispered.

Victor shook his head.

"We don't know yet. We can't accuse anyone without proof."

I folded the note and placed it carefully inside the notebook.

"We need to find out what's on this USB drive," I said. "And we need to read everything in Dad's notebook. Maybe they'll tell us who Charles is working with."

Victor nodded.

"We'll do that. But we have to be careful from now on. If someone at school is watching you, we can't let them know what we've found."

I looked down at the USB drive.

Inside it might be the proof we needed to expose Charles. It might finally explain what had happened to my father.

But it could also reveal secrets far worse than anything we had discovered so far.

Before either of us could say another word, a bright light flashed through the trees behind the chapel.

I turned sharply, raising my hand to shield my eyes.

Someone was standing in the darkness.

I couldn't see their face, but I could hear the anger in their voice.

"I told you to walk away, Lara."

My heart dropped.

The stranger took a step closer.

"You should have listened."