Chapter 4
Adrian ordered Marcus to take Ruby to the upstairs playroom.
Ruby refused to release Elena.
“I’m staying with her,” Elena said.
“You need a doctor.”
“I can see one after Ruby calms down.”
Adrian looked at her injured wrist.
Guilt crossed his face.
“This happened in my home.”
“It happened because of your wife.”
“I should have noticed what she was doing.”
“You noticed tonight.”
“Too late.”
Elena shook her head.
“Not too late for Ruby.”
That silenced him.
He asked Marcus to station two guards outside the playroom.
Then he returned to Grant.
Elena took Ruby upstairs, but the little girl would not let her close the door.
“Daddy might need us.”
“He knows where we are.”
“Celeste said the police would take him too.”
Elena knelt carefully.
“When?”
“This morning.”
A chill moved through Elena.
“What exactly did she say?”
Ruby looked toward the hallway.
“She was talking to Uncle Grant. She said if Daddy found out, all three of them would go to prison.”
“Did they see you?”
“No. I was behind the curtains.”
“Why didn’t you tell your father?”
“Celeste said people who tell secrets get sent away.”
Elena sat beside her.
“You are not going anywhere.”
“She sent my old nanny away.”
Elena stared at her.
“What old nanny?”
“Miss Hannah.”
Adrian had told Elena that Ruby’s previous nanny left suddenly for a job in Europe.
“Did Miss Hannah tell you why she left?”
Ruby nodded.
“She said she saw Celeste put medicine in Daddy’s coffee.”
Elena’s pulse quickened.
“What kind of medicine?”
“I don’t know.”
“What happened after she told you?”
“Celeste came into my room. She said Miss Hannah stole jewelry and ran away.”
Elena reached for her phone.
It was gone.
She remembered leaving it on the kitchen counter before the party.
“Stay here.”
Ruby clung to her.
“Don’t leave me.”
“I’m only going to the doorway.”
Elena called to the guard.
“Please ask Mr. Vale to come upstairs.”
The guard touched his earpiece.
No answer came.
He tried again.
Then all the lights went out.
Ruby screamed.
The mansion fell into total darkness.
A second later, emergency lights glowed along the floor.
Elena pulled Ruby behind her.
The security guard drew his weapon.
“What happened?” Elena asked.
“The backup system should have activated.”
A crash sounded downstairs.
Then a man shouted.
The guard spoke urgently into his radio.
Static answered.
Elena’s fear sharpened.
This was not a normal power failure.
“Get inside,” the guard ordered.
He closed the playroom door and locked it from the outside.
Elena dragged a cabinet in front of the door.
Ruby was trembling.
“Is Celeste back?”
“No.”
But Elena was not sure.
She searched the room for another exit.
The windows overlooked the rear garden from the second floor. Too high to jump.
Then she saw a narrow door beside the shelves.
“What’s in there?”
“Daddy’s old computer room.”
Elena opened it.
A small office sat beyond the door.
Dust covered the desk, but a monitor glowed in the darkness.
It was connected to an independent battery.
Security feeds appeared across the screen.
Most showed black images.
One camera was still active.
The library.
Adrian stood over Grant.
Marcus was beside the door.
A masked man entered through the terrace.
Elena covered Ruby’s eyes just as the intruder struck Marcus with a metal flashlight.
Marcus fell.
Adrian lunged at the man.
The video had no sound, but the violence was clear.
Grant did not help his brother.
He ran toward the wall safe.
“Daddy!” Ruby screamed.
Elena grabbed the old desk phone.
No dial tone.
She tried the keyboard.
A login screen appeared.
Ruby reached around her.
“I know the password.”
“How?”
“Daddy showed me.”
Ruby typed the name of her mother, Claire, followed by four numbers.
The security system opened.
A red warning flashed.
EXTERNAL OVERRIDE ACTIVE.
Elena found the intercom controls.
She pressed the button for the library.
“Adrian, behind you!”
On the camera, Adrian turned as a second masked man entered.
He ducked.
The man’s fist missed his head.
Adrian grabbed a chair and drove it into the attacker.
Grant opened the safe.
He removed a black drive and shoved it inside his jacket.
Then he ran through a side door.
Elena switched on the exterior alarm.
A deafening siren filled the estate.
Lights began flashing across the property.
The masked men fled through the terrace.
Adrian ran to Marcus.
Elena unlocked the playroom from the computer and hurried into the hall with Ruby.
The guard outside was gone.
They reached the staircase as Adrian appeared below.
“Stay upstairs!” he shouted.
“Grant took something from the safe,” Elena called.
Adrian’s face changed.
“What?”
“A black drive.”
He ran toward the side hall.
The sound of an engine roared outside.
By the time Adrian reached the driveway, Grant’s car was crashing through the half-open gate.
Adrian returned to the library.
Marcus was awake but bleeding from a cut near his temple.
An ambulance was on its way.
Adrian checked the safe.
The shelf where he kept an encrypted backup drive was empty.
“What was on it?” Elena asked.
“Corporate archives. Foundation accounts. Private family records.”
“Could Grant access them?”
“He built the encryption system with me.”
Adrian looked at the disabled cameras.
“Only three people knew how to override this network.”
“You, Grant, and Celeste?”
He nodded.
Ruby slipped her hand into her father’s.
“Celeste said Uncle Grant would fix everything tonight.”
Adrian crouched.
“When did she say that?”
“This morning.”
“What else did you hear?”
Ruby glanced at Elena.
Elena nodded encouragingly.
“She said you would lose the company. Then Uncle Grant would take care of her.”
Adrian looked as though someone had struck him.
His wife and brother had not simply stolen from him.
They had planned to remove him.
The police returned with paramedics.
Marcus was taken to the hospital.
Detectives searched the library and collected footage from the surviving camera.
Adrian called the general counsel of Vale Systems.
“Freeze every account connected to Grant,” he said. “Suspend his credentials and notify the board.”
The lawyer protested.
Adrian’s voice turned hard.
“My CFO just stole an encrypted drive during a coordinated attack on my home.”
He listened for a moment.
“No, Daniel. This cannot wait until morning.”
Elena watched him become the billionaire the newspapers described.
Calm.
Precise.
Merciless.
But when he ended the call and looked at Ruby, he became a frightened father again.
A paramedic examined Elena’s wrist.
“It may be fractured.”
“I’ll go to the hospital after Ruby is safe.”
Adrian heard her.
“You are going now.”
“She needs someone she trusts.”
“She trusts me.”
Ruby looked down.
The silence hurt him.
Adrian knelt in front of her.
“I know I haven’t been here enough.”
“You always leave.”
“I did.”
“You let Celeste be mean.”
His eyes filled with pain.
“I didn’t know.”
“You should have.”
Elena expected him to defend himself.
He did not.
“You’re right,” he said. “I should have known.”
Ruby began to cry.
He pulled her into his arms.
“I’m sorry.”
She held him tightly.
“Don’t go to prison.”
“I’m not going anywhere.”
“Celeste said—”
“Celeste lied.”
“What if Uncle Grant makes the police believe her?”
Adrian looked at Elena over Ruby’s shoulder.
It was the same fear Elena had felt in the library.
A lie supported by money and influence could become dangerous.
Especially if Grant possessed records carrying Adrian’s signature.
Adrian stood.
“We’re all leaving the house.”
“Where?” Elena asked.
“A secure property in Malibu.”
The detective overheard.
“You need to remain available for questioning.”
“I will. But my daughter is not sleeping here after an armed intrusion.”
He asked a female officer to accompany them.
The officer agreed.
As they prepared to leave, Elena found her phone in the kitchen.
There were seven missed calls from an unknown number.
A voicemail had arrived three minutes earlier.
Elena played it.
Celeste’s voice filled the speaker.
“You should have taken the money when I offered it. Now Adrian knows just enough to become dangerous. If you care about Ruby, get her away from him before midnight.”
The message ended.
Adrian had heard every word.
Elena looked at him.
“What does she mean?”
“I don’t know.”
Her phone rang again.
The same unknown number appeared.
Adrian answered it.
“Celeste.”
A man’s voice responded.
“Your wife can’t come to the phone.”
Adrian’s grip tightened.
“Who is this?”
“Someone holding the evidence that will put you in prison.”
“What do you want?”
“The girl.”
Adrian looked at Ruby.
His face became stone.
“You will never touch my daughter.”
The man laughed softly.
“I wasn’t talking about Ruby.”
May you like
His next words turned Elena cold.
“We want the nanny.”
