Chapter 7 - The Bride Who Vanished
The rear gardens stretched across forty acres.
Security teams searched the greenhouse, stables, guest cottages, and service tunnels beneath the manor.
Genevieve’s wedding gown was found near the reflecting pool.
She had cut away the heavy skirt and changed into clothing hidden inside a maintenance cabinet.
A groundskeeper reported seeing a woman in gray trousers enter a delivery van.
The van had already passed the outer checkpoint.
Someone inside security had helped her escape.
Alex ordered every employee’s access suspended.
Ruiz objected.
“Locking down your own people may frighten whoever assisted her.”
“Good,” Alex said.
“Frightened people make mistakes.”
Lucia entered the security room carrying Sofi.
The child refused to sleep without seeing Alex.
Sofi looked at the wall of surveillance screens.
“Mommy says the bad lady went away.”
“For now,” Alex said.
“Is she angry at me?”
“No.”
“She is afraid of the truth.”
Sofi studied his face.
“Are you angry?”
“Yes.”
“At me?”
“Never.”
She reached out and touched the line between his eyebrows.
“My daddy made that face when the pipes broke.”
Lucia apologized and tried to carry her away.
Alex stopped her.
“You do not have to apologize every time your daughter speaks.”
“It is a habit,” Lucia said.
“People with money do not like being interrupted.”
Alex looked around the room filled with silent employees.
“Perhaps that is why they hear so little truth.”
A technician recovered footage from a camera near the vendor gate.
The delivery van belonged to Prescott Foundation Catering.
Its driver was Owen Drake, Charles Prescott’s personal assistant.
Ruiz ordered Charles detained for questioning.
Charles remained calm.
He claimed Owen had stolen the vehicle.
Then the technician enlarged the passenger-side reflection in the gatehouse window.
Genevieve sat beside the driver.
A second person occupied the rear seat.
Only part of his hand was visible.
A silver snake circled his finger.
Marcus and Genevieve had escaped together.
The van’s tracking device had been removed.
However, the vehicle used electronic toll lanes.
A toll camera captured it heading north.
Julian mapped possible destinations.
Charles owned a hunting lodge near Lake George.
The Prescott Foundation controlled a private rehabilitation center in Westchester.
Marcus owned no property under his own name.
Sofi stared at the map.
“The snake man talked about a church with no people.”
Lucia frowned.
“What church?”
“The one with the broken angel.”
Alex remembered it immediately.
Ward Global had purchased an abandoned monastery outside Cold Spring to convert into a leadership retreat.
The renovation had stopped after Javier’s death.
A stone angel near the entrance had lost one wing during a storm.
Marcus still possessed the original property keys.
Ruiz called the tactical team.
Then every light inside Rosewood Manor went out.
May you like
A mechanical lock clicked somewhere below them.
From the darkened hall came the sound of Sofi’s inhaler rolling across the floor.
