Chapter 5 - The Family Property
The second strike was harder.
The black unit barely moved.
But the security system reacted violently.
Steel shutters slid over two windows.
The office door locked open.
A red status bar appeared on Clara’s laptop.
PROTECTED COMPARTMENT BREACH.
AUTOMATED RESPONSE ACTIVE.
Sienna stared at it.
Then at the camera.
“What did you do?”
Clara called.
Sienna answered, screaming immediately.
“Unlock the doors!”
“Put the tool down.”
“Unlock them!”
“Put it down first.”
“You trapped my children!”
“You triggered a security lockdown.”
“Fix it.”
“I can’t.”
“You own the system!”
“No, Sienna. I don’t.”
That finally penetrated.
Sienna’s breathing changed.
“What do you mean?”
Clara hesitated.
Julian spoke through the secure channel.
“Tell her.”
Clara swallowed.
“The penthouse belongs to someone else.”
Sienna blinked.
“Who?”
“I’m not authorized to tell you.”
“Are you insane?”
Margaret’s voice burst from the speaker.
“She’s bluffing.”
Sienna looked down.
“Mom says you’re bluffing.”
“Mom is the reason you’re trapped in a federal security lockdown with two frightened children.”
Margaret screamed.
“Don’t blame me!”
Clara’s anger sharpened.
“You told her to break it.”
“Because Thomas hid something there.”
“Seven years ago.”
“Yes.”
“The room was rebuilt.”
“Not the wall.”
Clara froze.
Margaret stopped speaking.
Sienna slowly looked toward the wall.
Clara’s mind began racing.
Not the wall.
How could Margaret know that?
Federal contractors had gutted the office, rewired the floor, reinforced doors, installed secure communication lines, and replaced cabinetry.
But the structural wall behind the biometric unit remained original.
Clara knew because she had approved architectural plans remotely.
Julian’s voice came through her earpiece.
“Clara?”
“She knows something.”
“Your mother?”
“Yes.”
“What?”
“I don’t know.”
Sienna kicked the bottom of the black unit.
“Call them off!”
“The system already sent the alert.”
“To who?”
Clara did not answer.
Sienna’s face twisted.
“Clara!”
Heavy footsteps sounded faintly from the hallway outside the penthouse.
Julian had arrived faster than expected.
Clara saw the elevator camera activate.
Marshals.
Sienna did not.
She was still staring into the office lens.
“This is family property!”
“No, it isn’t.”
“Dad paid for part of this place.”
“He gave me fifty thousand dollars toward the original down payment.”
“There!”
“I paid him back.”
“He was your father.”
“That doesn’t mean every dollar he ever touched becomes yours.”
Margaret’s voice came through.
“Your father left that money for his daughters.”
“What money?”
“The money in the wall.”
Clara stopped breathing.
Sienna looked toward the black unit.
Julian’s footsteps grew closer.
“What money?” Clara asked again.
Margaret went silent.
“Mom.”
Nothing.
“Mom, what money?”
Sienna gripped the tool.
“Enough.”
“Enough for what?”
“For us not to need you anymore.”
Clara felt an unexpected ache.
Not because Sienna wanted independence.
Because for the first time Clara realized that dependence had never embarrassed her sister.
Only dependence on Clara.
Whatever Thomas had hidden, Sienna believed it represented freedom from the sibling she resented.
The door clicked.
Sienna smiled.
She thought Clara had opened it.
May you like
Then Julian Vance entered.
And everything changed.
