Chapter 4 - Forty-Three Minutes Before Midnight, Someone Took the Key
“Seal the doors!”
Charles’s command cut through the confusion.
The former Ashford guards moved instantly.
Every entrance to the banquet hall was closed.
Guests shouted in protest.
“Open the doors!”
“You can’t keep us here!”
“I have nothing to do with this!”
Charles ignored them.
Evelyn stood in the center of the room, staring at her empty hand.
The key was gone.
Margaret had vanished within three seconds of darkness.
Damien remained restrained beside the stage.
Celeste crouched near a table, searching for her fallen phone.
Lucas looked around wildly.
“My mother was just here.”
Evelyn turned toward him.
“Where would she go?”
“I don’t know.”
“You grew up in this villa.”
“So did Damien.”
Damien smiled.
“Don’t look at me.”
Evelyn walked toward him.
“Did you take the key?”
“How could I?”
“You arranged the blackout.”
“My access was terminated.”
“You knew the cameras.”
“You own the hidden system, remember?”
His smile widened.
“For once, Evelyn, I may be as confused as you are.”
She searched his face.
Damien was many things.
Cruel.
Manipulative.
Dishonest.
But he was not pretending now.
He had not expected the symbol to appear on every phone.
He had not expected Margaret to recognize the key.
Charles approached.
“We’re reviewing the recordings.”
“The lights went out.”
“The infrared cameras remained active.”
A tablet was brought forward.
The footage showed the ballroom from above.
At 11:17:04, the chandeliers failed.
Guests moved in panic.
Margaret grabbed Evelyn’s wrist.
A second figure approached from behind.
The image became distorted.
Static crossed the screen.
At 11:17:07, the lights returned.
Margaret and the second figure were gone.
Charles replayed the video.
“Pause there.”
The image froze.
The second figure wore a black server’s uniform.
The face was hidden.
But one detail was visible.
A silver ring bearing the divided-circle emblem.
Evelyn looked around.
“How many serving staff are here?”
The banquet manager stepped forward.
“Thirty-two.”
“Bring them all in.”
“They were hired through an outside agency.”
“Which agency?”
The manager checked his tablet.
His expression changed.
“The contract file is gone.”
Charles looked at one of his assistants.
“Search the service corridors.”
Teams moved out.
Evelyn’s back throbbed.
The room had begun to spin, but she forced herself to stay focused.
Dr. Lena Morris approached with a medical bag.
“You need treatment.”
“Later.”
“You may have deep tissue damage.”
“Find Margaret first.”
“You won’t help anyone if you collapse.”
Evelyn looked at Charles.
“You have twenty minutes.”
“Miss Hart—”
“Search every room.”
Charles nodded reluctantly.
Dr. Morris guided Evelyn into a private sitting room beside the ballroom.
The gown had adhered to her wounds.
When the doctor carefully pulled the fabric away, Evelyn gripped the edge of the table but made no sound.
“These injuries will need hospital care,” Lena said.
“Can you stop the bleeding?”
“Yes.”
“Then do that.”
The doctor cleaned the wounds.
Evelyn stared at the open doorway.
Outside, investigators moved through the corridor.
Guests were questioned.
The villa no longer felt like a home.
It felt like a crime scene.
Perhaps it always had been.
Lena applied dressings across Evelyn’s back.
“Why did you wait until tonight?”
“To leave him?”
“Yes.”
Evelyn lowered her eyes.
“I had been collecting evidence for almost a year.”
“Against Damien?”
“Against the entire company.”
“Why not leave sooner?”
“Because I believed he was stealing from Ashford Holdings.”
“And tonight?”
“Tonight I learned he may have married me for something connected to my family.”
Lena closed the medical bag.
“Do you trust the people who came to protect you?”
Evelyn looked at her.
“Charles served my father.”
“That isn’t an answer.”
“No.”
Lena nodded.
“Good.”
Evelyn narrowed her eyes.
“Why?”
“Because someone knew about the letter.”
“Only Charles knew.”
“Someone also knew the key would be inside it.”
Evelyn looked toward the ballroom.
Charles had claimed never to have opened the envelope.
If that was true, only her father should have known about the key.
Yet the symbol appeared on every phone immediately after she revealed it.
Someone had been watching.
Waiting.
The clock read 11:31 p.m.
Twenty-nine minutes until midnight.
Lucas appeared at the doorway.
“We found something.”
Evelyn stood too quickly.
Pain tore through her back.
Lena caught her arm.
“Slowly.”
Evelyn followed Lucas into the west corridor.
A section of the wall paneling had been opened, revealing a narrow hidden passage.
Charles stood beside it.
“The house plans show no corridor here.”
Damien, escorted by guards, laughed from behind them.
“My father built several.”
Evelyn looked at him.
“In a house he did not own?”
“He improved it.”
Charles held up a flashlight.
“We found Margaret’s bracelet inside.”
“Then she went through here.”
“Or someone wants us to think she did.”
Evelyn entered the passage.
Charles followed.
The air smelled of dust and old wood.
The corridor descended behind the walls.
At several points, narrow openings offered views into bedrooms, offices, and bathrooms.
Observation holes.
Evelyn stopped beside one.
“You watched people through these?”
Damien’s voice came from behind.
“My father did.”
“And you?”
He did not answer.
The passage ended at an iron staircase.
They descended into darkness.
The sound of the banquet hall faded above them.
At the bottom was a concrete tunnel.
One direction led toward the east wing.
The other toward the garden.
On the floor lay Margaret’s shoe.
Lucas picked it up.
“Mother!”
His voice echoed.
No answer.
They continued toward the east wing.
At 11:39 p.m., they found blood on the wall.
Lucas’s breathing became uneven.
Evelyn touched the stain.
Still wet.
Charles examined the floor.
“There are drag marks.”
Damien’s face lost some of its color.
“This wasn’t part of any plan.”
Evelyn looked at him.
“Whose plan?”
He stared ahead.
Before he could answer, a distant scream echoed through the tunnel.
“Mother!” Lucas shouted.
Everyone ran.
The tunnel opened into a circular underground chamber.
Margaret sat tied to a chair beneath a single hanging light.
Her mouth was covered.
Blood ran from a cut near her temple.
Lucas rushed toward her.
Charles raised one hand.
“Wait.”
A wire stretched across the floor.
Attached to it was a small device beneath Margaret’s chair.
Damien stopped.
“What is that?”
One of Charles’s security specialists crouched near the entrance.
“Pressure mechanism.”
“Explosive?”
“Possibly.”
Margaret shook her head violently.
Her eyes moved toward the wall behind them.
Words had been painted there in red.
RETURN THE KEY BEFORE MIDNIGHT.
The clock read 11:44 p.m.
Evelyn stepped into the chamber.
Charles caught her arm.
“Don’t.”
“She may know where the key is.”
“This could be a trap.”
“It is a trap.”
Evelyn looked at Margaret.
“But not for her.”
She slowly approached, avoiding the wire.
The security specialist guided each step.
When Evelyn reached the chair, she removed the cloth from Margaret’s mouth.
Margaret gasped.
“They took it.”
“Who?”
“I couldn’t see.”
“What do they want?”
“The vault.”
“What vault?”
Margaret began crying.
It was the first time Evelyn had ever seen her show anything resembling helplessness.
“Your father should have destroyed that key.”
“What does it open?”
Margaret looked toward Damien.
“Tell her.”
Damien remained near the chamber entrance.
“Mother.”
“Tell her what you brought into this family.”
Damien’s face tightened.
Evelyn crouched in front of Margaret.
“What does 317 open?”
Margaret closed her eyes.
“A deposit chamber beneath the old Hart Bank.”
“The bank was demolished.”
“The building was demolished. The lower vaults remained.”
“What is inside?”
“I don’t know.”
“You were afraid the moment you saw the key.”
“Because your father once came to our house carrying it.”
Evelyn froze.
“When?”
“Eighteen years ago.”
“The night he died?”
Margaret nodded.
“He met Damien’s father in secret.”
“Why?”
“I listened from the corridor. Your father said someone had betrayed the Hart family.”
“Who?”
“He never said.”
“What did Damien’s father do?”
“He promised to hide you.”
Evelyn looked back at Damien.
“You knew.”
“Not everything.”
“You knew our fathers worked together.”
“I learned years later.”
“And you still pretended our meeting was accidental.”
Damien said nothing.
Margaret pulled against the ropes.
“You must not go to the vault.”
“Why?”
“Because your father said the key could open two things.”
“What two things?”
Margaret looked at the red message on the wall.
“The vault.”
“And?”
“A list of people who were supposed to be dead.”
Evelyn thought of the photograph.
Her mother outside the private clinic.
Saint Orison.
The fire.
The false body.
“How many people?”
“I don’t know.”
“Was my mother on that list?”
Margaret’s eyes filled with fear.
“She made the list.”
The hanging light flickered.
A mechanical click sounded beneath the chair.
The security specialist looked at his device.
“We have movement in the pressure plate.”
Lucas panicked.
“Do something!”
“I need everyone to remain still.”
The digital clock on the device illuminated.
15:00.
Then began counting down.
14:59.
14:58.
Charles checked his watch.
11:45 p.m.
The timer would reach zero exactly at midnight.
Evelyn looked at the painted warning.
Return the key before midnight.
“But we don’t have it,” Lucas whispered.
A phone rang.
The sound came from Margaret’s coat pocket.
Evelyn carefully removed it.
The screen displayed no number.
Only the divided-circle symbol.
She answered.
A distorted voice spoke.
“Evelyn Hart.”
“Who are you?”
“Bring Damien Ashford to the old bank.”
She looked toward Damien.
“Why?”
“He knows the second entrance.”
Damien shook his head.
The voice continued.
“Arrive before midnight with Damien, or Margaret dies.”
“How do I know she won’t die anyway?”
“You don’t.”
The call ended.
Evelyn stood.
Charles blocked her path.
“You cannot go.”
“I have fifteen minutes.”
“The bank is twelve minutes away.”
“Then we leave now.”
“This is exactly what they want.”
“Yes.”
“Miss Hart—”
She looked directly at him.
“If my father’s letter was correct, everyone will lie.”
Charles’s expression hardened slightly.
“Do you believe I am lying?”
“I believe you have not told me everything.”
Silence passed between them.
Then Charles stepped aside.
Evelyn turned to Damien.
“You’re coming with me.”
He laughed once.
“You think I’ll help you after what you did tonight?”
She moved closer.
“Your mother is tied to a bomb.”
“She never protected me.”
“She protected your secrets.”
Damien’s smile vanished.
Evelyn lowered her voice.
“And whoever stole the key knows those secrets too.”
He looked at the timer.
12:47.
12:46.
Finally, he nodded.
“There is a tunnel under the old bank.”
“Where?”
“I’ll show you.”
Charles signaled to his team.
“No large convoy. Whoever is watching will see it.”
Evelyn looked at the security specialist.
“Can you stop the device?”
“I can try, but any wrong movement may trigger it.”
“Keep her alive.”
Lucas remained beside Margaret.
“I’m staying.”
Margaret grabbed his hand.
“No.”
“I’m not leaving you.”
“You need to go upstairs.”
“Why?”
She looked at the timer.
Then at Evelyn.
“Because this is not the only device in the house.”
Everyone froze.
Margaret’s voice broke.
“They wired the ballroom too.”
At that exact moment, the villa’s fire alarms began screaming.
The ballroom doors automatically unlocked.
May you like
Two hundred terrified guests rushed toward the exits.
And somewhere beneath the floor, a second countdown started.
