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The early morning air felt like cold water slapped against my face as I stepped out onto 5th Avenue. My thrift-store silver dress swished against my ankles, a noisy, glaring sign of a fantasy that was already evaporating into the dawn mist. / Chapter 2 / 8

Chapter 2 - THE BLOOD ON THE PEARLS

The room went completely silent except for the buzzing of the refrigerator. I unlatched the chain with shaking hands.

Ruth Sterling stepped inside, her emerald silk coat sweeping across my dusty linoleum floor. The two suited men stayed outside, guarding the door.

"What are you talking about?" I choked out. "Murder?"

Ruth threw a manila envelope onto my small kitchen table. Photos spilled out. They showed the penthouse elevator, the hallway, and finally... Julian’s bed.

In the photo, the silver mask lay on the white silk nightstand, exactly where I had left it. But right beside it was a pool of dark, coagulated blood, smears trailing down the side of the mahogany dresser toward an open wall safe.

"Julian Vance was attacked forty minutes after you snuck out," Ruth said, her voice dropping to a harsh whisper. "The police haven't been called yet because Vance’s security team suppressed the incident. But the blood isn't his."

"Whose... whose blood is it?" Cassie squeaked from the couch.

"Clarissa Vance," Ruth answered, staring directly into my eyes. "Julian’s ex-fiancée. The woman who disappeared three years ago. Her DNA was found on the nightstand right next to your mask."

My head spun. "No... no, he was asleep! I left at 5:09 AM. He was alone!"

"He claims he was drugged," Ruth continued. "He woke up at 5:45 AM covered in blood, the safe cleaned out, and the silver mask left as a bloody signature. The media thinks you're a high-society cat burglar who seduced Manhattan's most ruthless billionaire to steal the Vance File."

"The Vance File?" I asked, struggling to breathe.

"A document containing the evidence of corruption that destroyed my family's firm," Ruth said coldly. "Julian held it over us. Now it’s gone, and you were the last person in his room."

"I didn't steal anything!" I shouted. "I'm a barista! I paint murals on fire escapes! I don't even know what a corporate file looks like!"

Ruth took a step closer, her blue eyes narrowing. "It doesn't matter what you are, Nora. What matters is what Julian Vance thinks you are. Right now, his private security squad is scouring the city for the girl with the silver mask. If they find you before I do, you won't make it to a courtroom."

"Why are you helping me then?" I asked, my blood running cold.

Ruth opened her handbag and pulled out a sleek silver phone and a set of keys to a black SUV parked downstairs.

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The screech of the chopper’s rotor blades vibrated directly through the freezing slate beneath my spine. The blinding white vortex of snow kicked up by the downdraft burned my eyes, but I forced my lids open, locking my gaze onto the amber visor of the rescue specialist dropping out of the sky.

The screech of the chopper’s rotor blades vibrated directly through the...

Daniel stepped toward the bed, his polished leather shoes squeaking against the pristine hospital linoleum. He reached for the tray table, his fingers brushing the edge of the papers. His voice was low, coated in a practiced, corporate calm that made my stomach churn worse than the spiked blood pressure.

Daniel stepped toward the bed, his polished leather shoes squeaking agai...

The silence in the dining room stretched thin, heavy enough to slice with a butter knife. Robert, Michael’s father, adjusted his napkin, completely oblivious to the silent war being fought across the porcelain plates.

The silence in the dining room stretched thin, heavy enough to slice wit...

"Because Julian Vance isn't looking to kill you, child," Ruth said softly, a dark smile touching her lips. "He just posted a ten-million-dollar bounty for anyone who delivers you to him alive. He wants his mask back. And he wants to know who you really work for."

Before I could answer, the glass of my living room window shattered inward. A red laser sight swept across the floor, locking straight onto my chest.

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