Part 4 — On My First Night in the Billionaire’s House, I Felt a Strange Smell Near the Twins’ Rooms and the Housekeeper’s Face Changed

And Adrian stepped outside.

Vincent locked the office door.

“No one comes near the children,” he said.

For the first time there was no billionaire’s confidence in his voice. There was only a father who was afraid of losing his own children behind the walls.

I ran to Lucas and Leo’s room. Harper was already there. The windows were open, and she had cut the wire of the spraying device with scissors.

“Where are they?” I asked.

“In the bathroom. I locked the door.”

Leo called from inside:

“Claire, is Dad with us?”

“He is. And this time no one will take you away.”

The sound of the bell came from below. Once. Twice. Then a pounding on the door.

“Vincent!” It was Adrian’s voice. “Open up before the children need help.”

Vincent took out his phone and called the police. His lawyer, Mark Daly, answered immediately.

“Mark, Adrian is in the house. Blake is here too. The children were poisoned. I need the police and an ambulance.”

Several seconds of silence fell on the other end.

“Vincent, your security team is already carrying out Adrian’s orders. They are with him.”

“You are my lawyer.”

“That is why I am telling you: do not open the door, sign nothing, and do not trust anyone who offers to take them away immediately.”

“Can you come?”

“I am on my way. A state investigator is coming with me.”

Another blow sounded on the door.

“Last chance, Vincent!” Adrian shouted. “You are killing the children if you do not let me help.”

Vincent turned on the door camera. Adrian stood on the screen, beside two security guards and the doctor’s assistant. Blake stood on the stairs, with his hands in his pockets.

“I want to take the children to the hospital,” Adrian said when the door speaker came on. “And you are hysterical.”

“You will not take the children.”

“Then their death will be on your conscience.”

I listened to these words and felt such cold that it was as if I were standing on the basement floor.

Harper lowered her head.

“This is the same tone in which he spoke to me then.”

“Then today he must hear his own voice,” I told her.

Vincent turned on the recording. Isabella’s voice sounded in the office.

“You are weakening them to force their father to sell the property.”

Then Blake’s voice:

“If the recording is opened, you will have no children left.”

And finally Adrian’s old recording, which Harper had hidden:

“If Isabella goes onto the road, the car will not stop.”

Adrian froze in front of the camera.

Vincent turned on the speaker.

“That is your voice.”

“It has been edited.”

“I have known your voice all my life.”

“You are desperate.”

“No. For the first time I am awake.”

Adrian looked back, as if searching for an escape route. Just then two police cars entered the yard. Mark Daly’s car stopped behind them, and a state investigator and ambulance doctors got out of a third car.

Blake tried to take out the bag, but Harper pushed him on the stairs. The bag fell to the floor. The small plastic flask rolled out from inside.

“This will be sent to the laboratory,” the investigator said.

Blake nodded.

“I was only carrying out orders.”

“That is exactly why you will need a lawyer,” Mark replied.

The police arrested Adrian beside the car. He did not shout. He only looked at Vincent.

“Did you lose everything because of me?” he asked.

Vincent stopped on the threshold.

“No. I lost everything the day I believed your lies.”

Then the children were taken to the hospital. The very first examinations confirmed that the compound was still in their blood, but after the device was switched off, their condition was no longer worsening.

Leo did not let go of the doctor’s hand.

“Will Claire stay with us?”

Vincent looked at me.

I saw the answer in his eyes, but still said it myself:

“If you want, I will stay.”

Lucas said quietly:

“We want you to.”

Three weeks later the old children’s rooms were completely cleaned. The walls were removed, the pipes were replaced, and all the basement devices were sealed for the court. Harper gave testimony. Blake confessed to the crime after the laboratory results confirmed his records.

In Adrian’s case, the old materials concerning Isabella’s accident were also reopened. It turned out that the car’s brakes had been tampered with. Vincent attended every hearing, but did not speak to a single journalist.

One morning, in the empty hospital corridor, Vincent told me:

“I thought I could find everything with money.”

“Sometimes the answer is where no one looks.”

“Why were you not afraid?”

I looked at my copper key. The little rays of the sun shone in the hospital’s white light.

“I was afraid. It was simply that the children’s fear covered my fear.”

Six weeks later Lucas and Leo returned home. They still tired quickly, but they had begun arguing again about who owned the bed standing by the window.

The house no longer resembled a prison. The security cameras remained, but the doors were no longer locked at every step. Harper baked cinnamon bread in the kitchen. For the first time, the smell of cinnamon was no longer mixed with chemical bitterness.

Vincent temporarily entrusted his company to Mark Daly and spent more time with the children. In the morning he prepared breakfast himself, although he always burned the eggs.

“Dad, is this food or charcoal?” Leo asked once.

Vincent chuckled.

“I am learning.”

“Call Claire,” Lucas told him.

“Claire needs rest too.”

I called from the kitchen:

“At last, you made one correct decision.”

Two months later the first snow came. A white layer fell in the yard, and the boys put on their boots and ran down the stairs. Vincent stood at the door, ready to shout at them, but stopped.

Lucas was already at the bottom.

“Dad, look how fast I came down!”

Vincent closed his eyes and breathed deeply.

“I saw, son.”

That evening I found an envelope on the door of my small room. Inside were a new employment contract, a higher salary, and a short letter from Vincent.

“You came to this house as a nanny and gave me my family back. If you ever want to leave, I will not stop you. If you stay, I will be grateful.”

I read the letter several times.

The next day I told Vincent:

“I am not leaving anywhere yet. But I have one condition.”

“What condition?”

“Never hide the truth from the children, even if that truth is painful for you.”

He nodded.

“I promise.”

Months later the last message from Adrian arrived. His lawyer wrote to me that he wanted to speak with me. He said that he would explain everything and ask for forgiveness.

I read the message, put the phone on the table, and sent back only one sentence:

“Being free of the consequences of your actions is no longer my duty.”

I wrote nothing more.

That same evening the children ran into my room. Leo was holding a drawing. Four people stood on a snowy yard on the sheet, and a yellow sun was drawn above them.

“This is you,” he told me, showing one small figure.

“Why do I have such a big head?”

“Because you saw everything.”

I laughed. Then I hung the drawing on my wall and hung the copper key on a small hook beneath it. I no longer had to open anything with that key. Its work was already finished.

Outside the window, snow was falling quietly. The children’s laughter could be heard in the house. Neither the sound of a medical machine, nor the clicking of a hidden device, nor fear.

Only their footsteps.

And the little copper sun was shining for the first time without a lock.