Chapter 6 - THE SECOND HALF
The gala filled the mansion while Elena, Julian and Detective Cross returned through the underground passage.
Marcus remained handcuffed in the chapel chamber under the supervision of Cross’s partner. Vivian moved Celeste to a private room near the ballroom, where the older woman could remain hidden until they found the evidence.
They had less than three hours before midnight.
At midnight, Isabella’s legal order transferring Celeste to a foreign medical facility would take effect. Once Celeste left the country, challenging Isabella’s control of the estate would become far more difficult.
Elena changed into a clean maid uniform.
Julian watched from the servants’ doorway.
“You almost died in that uniform twice today.”
“It helps people underestimate me.”
“My mother doesn’t underestimate you anymore.”
“Good.”
Julian held out a small earpiece.
“Security uses these during major events. We can communicate without attracting attention.”
Elena inserted it.
“What is our plan?”
“My mother keeps personal jewelry in the dressing room behind her ballroom suite. If she has the second half of the locket, it will be there.”
“Security?”
“Two guards outside. Several cameras inside.”
“Can you disable them?”
“For ninety seconds.”
“That’s not long.”
“It’s longer than the nursery gave you.”
Elena moved through the ballroom carrying a silver tray.
Guests admired Isabella as she welcomed them beneath the chandeliers. No one seemed aware that her security chief had disappeared or that a fire had nearly destroyed part of the mansion.
Isabella performed innocence beautifully.
“Elena,” Julian’s voice said through the earpiece. “Wait near the eastern column.”
She moved into position.
Across the room, Julian approached his mother.
“May I speak with you?”
Isabella smiled for the guests.
“Of course.”
“The press wants a family photograph in the garden.”
“At this hour?”
“The foundation’s communications director arranged it.”
“I dismissed him yesterday.”
Julian’s expression did not change.
“Then perhaps you should ask why he’s still organizing photographs.”
Suspicion sharpened her eyes.
But the mention of unauthorized press activity was enough. Isabella followed him toward the garden doors.
“Go,” Julian whispered through the earpiece.
Elena entered the private corridor.
The guards outside Isabella’s suite had been called to investigate a staged disturbance in the wine cellar.
The cameras rotated toward the ceiling.
“Ninety seconds,” Julian said.
Elena opened the dressing-room door.
Rows of gowns lined mirrored walls. Jewelry glittered beneath glass. She searched drawers and cabinets but found no locket.
“Sixty seconds.”
On the vanity stood a portrait of Isabella and Eliana as young women.
The frame was unusually thick.
Elena opened the back.
A gold crescent fell into her palm.
“Thirty seconds.”
She connected it to her half.
The locket clicked shut.
But before she could open it, the dressing-room door locked.
The cameras turned toward her.
Isabella’s voice came through a hidden speaker.
“You should have accepted the fire as a warning.”
Elena looked at the ceiling.
“You should have hidden the locket better.”
“I wanted you to find it.”
A panel opened in the wall, revealing a television screen.
The image showed Celeste sitting alone in the private room.
A man wearing medical scrubs entered behind her.
Elena’s chest tightened.
“What are you doing?”
“The injection in his hand will stop my mother’s heart within four minutes. It will look entirely natural.”
Elena struck the locked door.
“Leave her alone.”
“Place the complete locket in the drawer.”
“Why?”
“Because Mara hid something inside it.”
Elena looked at the locket.
“You never opened it?”
“My half requires yours.”
“What is in the photograph?”
“I don’t know. Mara stole it before fleeing.”
“You killed your sister without knowing what she had hidden?”
Silence followed.
Then Isabella said, “You know nothing about my sister.”
“I know she had the child you tried to erase.”
“Eliana stole everything from me.”
“She had Samuel’s love.”
“She had my mother’s love. My father’s trust. The family inheritance. Samuel was merely another thing she took.”
“You murdered her because she was loved?”
“She was weak. She would have destroyed this family.”
Elena heard the man on the screen remove a syringe cap.
“Ten seconds,” Isabella said. “The locket.”
Elena placed it in the drawer.
The dressing-room door unlocked.
She ran.
When she reached Celeste’s room, the man in medical scrubs was gone.
Celeste remained alive but unconscious.
Vivian knelt beside her.
“He injected something into the IV. I removed it before the full dose entered.”
Detective Cross entered behind Elena.
“Where is the locket?”
Elena’s silence answered him.
Julian appeared in the corridor.
“My mother never went to the garden,” he said. “She knew we were distracting her.”
“Isabella has both halves now,” Elena said.
Cross looked toward the ballroom.
“Then she has the photograph.”
A woman screamed below.
They rushed to the balcony overlooking the ballroom.
Isabella stood near the central staircase holding the open locket.
A tiny photograph lay in her hand.
She stared at it with an expression Elena had never seen before.
Not fear.
Horror.
May you like
Then Isabella looked directly up at Elena.
“Samuel is alive.”
