ONE MONTH WITH THE DEVIL

Chapter 22

My heart was beating so hard against my ribs it felt like a small bird trapped inside me. I took one quick step back, my hands holding tight to the edge of the desk behind me, my breath getting stuck in my throat. The person walked fully into the soft light coming from the lamp in the hall, and Maya made a small gasp sound next to me.

It was Xander.

"You?" The word came out of me, barely more than a soft whisper. My mind was spinning fast steady, good Xander, the one who had always been there for me, whose father had worked with my Dad, who had given me copies of papers and stood by me when everyone else walked away. "How… why?"

He did not look like he felt shame. He did not even look sorry. He just looked calm, as if we were talking about school homework and not standing in a room full of secrets that he had helped hide.

"My father did not just work with yours, Lara. He worked for yours for your grandfather. He always has. And I did too." He leaned in a casual way against the door frame, blocking any way to get out. "Your grandfather knew Victor was getting too close to the truth. He knew someone had to watch you. Someone you would never think of. Who better than the nice, safe boy who had been your friend since you were small in school?"

Everything changed in my mind every quiet talk we had, every time he showed up exactly when I needed help, every question he asked that felt so innocent at the time. He was not helping me. He was getting information from me. Telling it back to someone else.

"The letter," I said, and the truth hit me like cold rain on my skin. "You helped me find it. You told me where to look for it. And that last line the one that says Victor's name you knew it was fake all along."

"I did not make the fake myself. Your grandfather made it many years ago, just in case it was ever needed one day. I just made sure you found it at exactly the right time when you were already starting to doubt Victor. When a small doubt would break everything you two had built together." Xander's smile was thin, sad, and had no warmth in it at all. "Smart, right? Victor loves you too much to fight back for himself. He would rather let you hate him than tell you the things he really did hide from you. It was never going to be a fair fight for him."

Maya stepped in front of me, her voice shaking but strong and brave. "Get out, Xander. Or I will scream so loud the whole street will hear me."

He made a small sigh sound, almost like he felt sorry for us. "No one is coming to help. Your friends are… busy. Ethan got a little too curious about the small gate at the side and had a small accident. Nothing big just enough to keep him out of the way for a while. And Victor… well, I told him you ran home alone, that you were upset and did not want to see anyone. He thinks you are safe here at home. He will stay away for many hours."

My blood went cold like ice. "What do you want from us?"

Xander pushed himself off the door frame and took one step closer to us. "I want what is fair and right. Your grandfather is going to stop working soon. Someone has to take over his place. It was supposed to be your father first. Then it was supposed to be Richard. Now it should be me. My family has worked for the Vance family for two generations. We did the dirty, hard work while they got all the praise. I am done waiting in the dark shadows."

"You are talking about stealing," I said, my voice more steady than I felt inside. "Everything my dad died trying to show the world you are just going to take it and run it yourself?"

"I am going to fix it," he said, as if that made everything he did okay. "Run it in the right way. Without the secrets, without the fear. But I cannot do that if you are standing in my way with those files and that family name that everyone loves so much. Victor would ruin everything just because you asked him to. He is weak when it comes to you. And you… you are dangerous to my plan."

"So what happens now?" Maya asked him, though her hand found mine behind our backs and held tight. "You take us away too? Just like you took Mom?"

Xander waited for a second, and in that one short second, something changed in his face a small sign of not being sure, a quick flash of doubt. "I do not want to hurt you. Either of you. Just give me the real files, the notebook, and the key. Then walk away. Go to college. Live your normal life. Forget this ever happened. That is the deal I am giving you."

"And if I say no?" I lifted my chin up high. "If I say the truth stays out for everyone to see and you go down with all the rest of them?"

His jaw got tight and hard. "Then I cannot let you leave this room. Not tonight. Not until morning, when your grandfather comes here and we decide what will happen next to you."

He reached into his pocket not for a gun or a knife, but for his phone and that was when Maya moved fast. She grabbed the heavy paperweight made of brass from the desk next to her and hit it hard against the old lamp on the corner of the desk, making glass break and fly across the floor and making half the room go dark.

"Run, Lara... now!"

We ran fast for the door before Xander could do anything. He jumped forward, catching the back of my jacket, pulling me backward but Maya pushed him hard into the bookshelf, making a big fall of old books crash down on top of him. I pulled myself free from his hand, and we ran out the door, slamming it shut hard behind us and turning the heavy iron key that had been left in the lock. We heard him hit against the door just seconds later low shouts that were hard to hear, then the loud shaking of the door handle but we were already running down the long hall, our breath coming out in scared, fast gasps.

"The back door!" Maya said in a low hiss. "It is closer to us!"

We ran fast through the dark house, past old pictures on the wall that looked like they were watching us go, our feet making loud sounds on the wood floor. But as we got to the front hall where you enter the house, the front door opened.

I froze still. Maya ran into my back hard.

Standing there, rain falling from his coat, his chest going up and down fast like he had run all the way here, was Victor.

But he was not alone. Behind him stood my grandfather. Smiling.

"Too late to run now, Lara," my grandfather said in a calm voice, stepping inside and closing the door behind him, locking us in. "Xander has done exactly what I told him to do. You walked right into every trap I set for you. Just like your father did before you."

I looked at Victor his face pale and white, his eyes wide and full of fear and I understood in that terrible second that he was not there with them as a friend. He had been led there. Tricked. Just like we had been tricked.

And then I saw it the small device in my grandfather's hand, pointed straight at Victor's chest. A remote control. Exactly like the one Charles had held at the old mill.

"Come quietly," my grandfather said, his voice going down to a whisper that rang in the silent hall. "Or the boy who loves you so much pays the price tonight."

Victor's eyes locked onto mine full of desperate need, begging me, telling me don't do it.

But I felt like I had no choice at all.

I took one small step forward, Maya's hand slipping slowly out of mine.

And then from upstairs Xander screamed.

Not a scream of anger. A scream of pure terror.

My grandfather flinched hard. His eyes looked up fast.

And that was when Victor moved.