Chapter 8 - The Darkness Inside Cross House)
For three seconds there was complete darkness.
Guests screamed.
Glass shattered.
Someone fell against a table.
Daniel reached for Emma.
His hand found her forearm.
“Stay with me.”
Emma pulled away instinctively.
That small movement hurt him more than he expected.
Emergency lights flickered on.
The mansion glowed dim red.
Margaret had vanished.
Daniel looked toward the garden.
“So has Jennifer.”
Emma ran toward the storage room.
Daniel followed.
The suitcase remained there.
The envelope remained on top.
But the loose brick in the garden wall had been pulled free.
Emma reached inside.
Empty.
“No.”
“What?”
“One of the copies.”
“Did they know?”
“They must have.”
Daniel touched her shoulder.
Emma flinched again.
He removed his hand.
“Where is the original?”
“Safe.”
“Robert’s drive?”
Emma looked toward the house.
“In the kitchen.”
They ran back.
The outdoor kitchen was empty.
Emma lifted the recipe box.
Its base had been broken open.
The drive was gone.
Daniel swore.
Emma closed her eyes.
Jennifer had known.
Or Margaret.
Maybe both.
“We still have the other copy,” Daniel said.
Emma looked at him.
“You don’t know where it is.”
“No.”
“And I’m not telling you yet.”
Daniel absorbed that.
“Fair.”
Emma blinked.
Five years earlier he might have demanded an explanation.
The man standing before her simply nodded.
Inside, the guests were leaving.
Several board members remained.
One of them, Thomas Keene, approached Daniel.
“Is any of what you said true?”
Daniel looked at Emma.
“All of it.”
Thomas lowered his voice.
“We need an emergency board meeting.”
“Tomorrow.”
“If funds have been diverted, accounts need to be frozen tonight.”
“I already started the process from Singapore.”
Emma stared at Daniel.
“How long have you known?”
“Six weeks that something was wrong. Three days that you were telling the truth.”
Her face tightened.
“Three days.”
“I came as fast as I could.”
“You had five years.”
Daniel said nothing.
Thomas quietly stepped away.
Emma looked toward the pool.
Jennifer was gone.
“Where is your mother?”
“I don’t know.”
“Daniel, if Margaret thinks we have evidence, she’ll destroy records.”
“She can destroy paper. She cannot erase international banking logs.”
“You sound very certain.”
“I’m not.”
That honesty surprised her.
Daniel pulled out his phone.
“No service.”
Emma checked hers.
Nothing.
“The internet too.”
Daniel looked toward the house security panel.
“This blackout was deliberate.”
Emma’s fear returned.
A figure appeared near the French doors.
Claire Donovan.
She carried her shoes in one hand.
“Emma.”
Emma exhaled.
“You’re still here.”
“I was waiting for the board members.”
Daniel looked between them.
“Who are you?”
“My attorney.”
Daniel nodded.
“I’m glad she has one.”
Claire studied him.
“Are you?”
“Yes.”
“Good. Then understand that I represent Emma, not you.”
“Understood.”
Emma almost smiled.
Claire looked toward the driveway.
“I sent the evidence packet before the power went out.”
Emma’s eyes widened.
“All of it?”
“Everything you gave me.”
“To whom?”
“Three board members and a journalist.”
Daniel exhaled.
Margaret could not contain it now.
Then Claire said, “But we have another problem.”
She pulled out a printed document.
“Someone filed an emergency petition this afternoon claiming Emma is mentally incompetent to manage her assets.”
Emma went numb.
Daniel took the document.
Petitioner: Margaret Cross.
Attached was a declaration allegedly signed by Daniel.
His face darkened.
“I never signed this.”
Claire nodded.
“I assumed that.”
Emma laughed once.
It was humorless.
“Of course.”
Daniel looked at the forged signature.
This time the attack was not about company money.
It was about legal control over Emma herself.
Claire continued.
“The hearing request asks for temporary authority over Emma’s voting shares and property interest.”
“When?” Daniel asked.
“Tomorrow morning.”
Daniel stared at his mother’s name.
Emma crossed her arms.
“She knew you were coming.”
Daniel looked at her.
“What?”
“She filed this before the party.”
“That doesn’t mean she knew.”
Claire shook her head.
“It might.”
Daniel’s phone suddenly reconnected.
Dozens of messages flooded the screen.
One stood out.
From corporate security.
Flight record breach detected. Dallas office accessed confidential itinerary 31 hours ago.
Daniel showed Emma.
She read it twice.
Margaret had known.
The dinner.
The humiliation.
The petition.
None of it had been accidental.
Emma looked toward the dark mansion.
“She wanted you to see me like that.”
Daniel understood.
Margaret had known her son was returning.
So she arranged the perfect image.
Emma dirty.
Emma working.
Emma appearing unstable and reduced.
Then Daniel would arrive to a legal petition claiming his wife was incompetent.
If Daniel had returned still believing the old lies, he might have signed whatever Margaret placed in front of him.
Emma whispered, “Tonight wasn’t Jennifer’s celebration.”
Daniel looked toward the empty doorway.
“No.”
“It was a trap.”
A car engine roared from the front drive.
Daniel ran through the house.
By the time he reached the entrance, Margaret’s black sedan was disappearing beyond the gates.
Jennifer sat in the passenger seat.
Daniel stopped beneath the stone archway.
Claire joined him.
“Where would they go?”
Daniel did not answer immediately.
Then he remembered an asset listed in the audit.
A private ranch outside Fort Worth.
Owned by Northstar Hospitality Services.
May you like
Daniel turned toward Emma.
“They’re going where they keep whatever they never wanted us to find.”
