Chapter 3 - THE MISSING DRIVE
Adrian locked the mansion down.
Every exterior gate closed.
Every employee was asked to remain inside.
Marcus collected phones from the household staff while investigators reviewed access records.
Elena sat in the kitchen with a cold pack around her wrist.
Sophie refused to leave her side.
The child had stopped crying, but she watched every doorway as though Celeste might return.
Adrian entered twenty minutes later.
He removed his suit jacket and placed it across a chair.
For the first time that night, he looked exhausted.
“What was in the safe?” Elena asked.
Adrian looked toward Sophie.
“Something that should never have been stored in this house.”
Sophie tightened her grip on Elena’s sleeve.
Adrian crouched in front of his daughter.
“Sweetheart, Marcus is going to take you to Aunt Claire’s house.”
“No.”
“You’ll be safe there.”
“I’m safe with Elena.”
Adrian’s eyes moved toward Elena’s swollen wrist.
Guilt crossed his face.
“No one was safe here tonight.”
Sophie leaned against Elena.
Elena gently brushed the girl’s hair away from her face.
“I’ll go with her.”
Adrian nodded.
Before they could leave, Marcus entered carrying a laptop.
“We found the safe logs.”
The biometric records showed Adrian had opened the safe eight days earlier.
Celeste’s fingerprints were not registered.
However, the safe had also been opened three nights earlier using an emergency override code.
Only four people knew that code.
Adrian.
Marcus.
Adrian’s chief legal officer.
And Adrian’s younger brother, Julian.
Adrian stared at the screen.
“Where is Julian?”
“Las Vegas,” Marcus answered.
“He checked into the Ardent Hotel this afternoon.”
Adrian pulled out his phone.
The call went straight to voicemail.
Marcus continued.
“There is something else.”
The security system showed Elena entering the study at 9:14 p.m. three nights earlier.
Celeste entered forty seconds before her.
The camera inside the study had gone offline at 9:13.
It returned at 9:18.
Someone had disabled it remotely.
Elena remembered Celeste standing near the safe.
She remembered the electronic tool in her hand.
She also remembered something else.
“There was a man on the terrace.”
Adrian turned toward her.
“What man?”
“I only saw his reflection in the window.”
Elena closed her eyes and tried to reconstruct the moment.
“He was tall.”
“He wore a dark baseball cap.”
“He had something silver on his right hand.”
“A ring?” Marcus asked.
“No.”
Elena shook her head.
“It looked like a metal brace around two fingers.”
Adrian and Marcus exchanged a look.
Elena noticed immediately.
“You know him.”
Adrian did not answer.
Marcus closed the laptop.
“His name is Damien Cross.”
Celeste’s older brother.
Damien had once worked as Vale Technologies’ head of cybersecurity.
Three years earlier, Adrian had fired him for attempting to sell confidential client information.
No charges had been filed because Celeste begged Adrian to protect her family.
Adrian had agreed.
It had been the greatest mistake of his life.
“The missing drive contains an offline encryption key,” Adrian explained.
“It can access a private server containing unreleased technology, legal records, and financial evidence connected to a federal investigation.”
Elena’s eyes widened.
“Why would Celeste want it?”
Adrian looked toward the dark windows.
“She doesn’t.”
“Damien does.”
Marcus’s phone vibrated.
He read the message and swore under his breath.
“What happened?” Adrian asked.
Marcus turned the screen around.
Security footage from the Ardent Hotel showed Julian entering an elevator.
May you like
Damien Cross stood beside him.
Julian was smiling.
