Chapter 4
Z
By nightfall, the quiet of the estate felt less like a sanctuary and more like the calm before a hurricane. I spent hours walking through the rooms, taking down Evelyn’s gaudy decorations and restoring my grandmother’s original pieces. My hand throbbed beneath the bandages, a constant, burning reminder of how close I had come to letting those vipers ruin my life completely.
At eight o'clock, a quiet knock came at the side door of the kitchen. Security signaled through the intercom that a woman was standing at the gate requesting to speak with me privately. It was Victoria Vance—Daniel’s ex-fiancée, the woman he had abandoned four years ago right before he met me.
I opened the door and let her into the dimly lit kitchen. Victoria looked around the pristine room, her eyes lingering on the lingering faint smell of burned broth and lemon cleaner.
"I heard what happened this morning," Victoria said without preamble, wrapping her arms around herself. "The rumor has already spread through the country club circuit. Evelyn is telling everyone you had a psychotic break and threw them out on the street."
"Let her talk," I said, offering her a glass of water. "The truth will come out in court."
Victoria took a sip, her face dark with memories. "Lena, you need to be extremely careful. You think you've backed Daniel into a corner, but you don't know how dangerous he gets when he’s desperate. Four years ago, when I tried to break off our engagement, he didn't just accept it. He tried to ruin my father’s reputation. He leaked fake financial documents to the press about my family's firm."
I frowned, leaning against the counter. "Why didn't you press charges?"
"Because Evelyn threatened me," Victoria confessed, her voice dropping to a harsh whisper. "Evelyn has a black book, Lena. For thirty years, her late husband was a high-level political consultant in this state. Evelyn kept all of his client files, his wiretap records, and his blackmail material. That’s how she controls people. That’s how Daniel gets away with everything. She protects him using her late husband's network."
A cold knot tightened in my stomach. "Where does she keep those files?"
"In a safe deposit box at the First National Bank downtown," Victoria said, looking me dead in the eye. "Or at least, she used to. But three days ago, I saw her leaving the private vault building near the marina with a heavy leather briefcase. She knew you were getting suspicious. She’s moving those files."
Before I could process Victoria’s warning, the floodlights outside the kitchen window suddenly flashed on, illuminating the back garden. The high-pitched siren of the property’s perimeter security alarm began to blare, shattering the night silence.
Victoria gasped, dropping her glass. It shattered on the tile floor.
I rushed to the window. Through the heavy rain that had started falling, I saw two dark figures scaling the brick wall near the rose garden—the very garden where Daniel had been hunting for the deed the night before.
"They're inside the gates," I said, grabbing my phone and hitting the direct dial for the security detail posted at the front. But all I heard on the line was static.
"The landlines and signal jamming," Victoria whispered in terror. "They cut the power."
Suddenly, the kitchen lights flickered once, twice, and plunged the entire mansion into pitch darkness.
The sound of glass shattering echoed from the conservatory down the hall. Someone was inside the house.
I pulled Victoria behind the heavy oak kitchen island. "Stay down and don't make a sound," I whispered, reaching into the low drawer near the stove where my grandmother had always kept a heavy brass antique candleholder.
Footsteps echoed softly on the hardwood floor of the dining room. Slow, deliberate, heavy footsteps.
"Lena..." Daniel’s voice drifted through the darkness, calm, twisted, and entirely unhinged. "You really shouldn't have frozen those accounts, sweetheart. Now Mom and I have nothing left to lose."
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I held my breath, gripping the brass candleholder until my knuckles turned white. From the darkness of the hallway, another shadow emerged—taller, broader, carrying a crowbar. It wasn't just Daniel. He had brought someone with him.
"Find the safe in the study," Daniel ordered the man in a low, gravelly voice. "And if you find her... make sure she can't sign any affidavits tomorrow morning."
