Chapter 2 - THE SNAKE IN THE MARBLE
Nora’s heart hammered against her ribs like a trapped bird. She burst into Arthur’s mahogany-paneled study, her eyes frantically scanning the massive oak desk.
Medicine. Where is the medicine?
She ripped open the top drawer. Papers, expensive fountain pens, leather notebooks—no pill bottle. She pulled the second drawer open. Nothing.
Footsteps echoed right outside the door.
Panicking, Nora shoved her hand deep into the back of the bottom drawer. Her fingers hit a false panel. She pressed it, and a small, hidden compartment popped open. Inside lay a dark amber prescription bottle labeled Nitroglycerin—and right beneath it lay a thick, dusty manila folder stamped with a word that made her blood run cold: PROJECT DAWN: ELENA WHITMORE.
Nora grabbed both the pills and the folder, stuffing the papers into the deep pocket of her maid apron just as the study door swung open.
Victoria stood in the doorway. She wasn’t breathing hard. She didn’t look panicked about her stepfather’s heart attack. She looked entirely composed, her arms crossed over her chest.
“Did you find them?” Victoria asked coldly.
“Yes,” Nora stammered, shoving the pill bottle toward her. “We have to help him!”
Victoria didn’t take the bottle. Instead, she stepped inside and locked the heavy oak door behind her. The sound of the deadbolt sliding into place was like a gunshot in the silent room.
“You’re very fast for a starving girl,” Victoria murmured, strolling toward the desk. “Tell me, Nora... did your mother ever tell you how she managed to escape this house eighteen years ago?”
Nora backed up until her heels hit the edge of the Persian rug. “She told me she fled for her life.”
“She ran because she was weak,” Victoria spat, her eyes flashing with pure malice. “Elena was Arthur’s precious biological daughter. She had everything. The fortune, the legacy, the love. And what was I? The stepdaughter brought in from a failed marriage. The outsider expected to sit quietly in the corner while Elena inherited the world.”
“So you threatened her,” Nora realized, her hand tightening around the papers hidden in her apron.
“I didn’t just threaten her. I framed her for the embezzlement of fifty million dollars from Arthur’s foundation,” Victoria sneered, taking a slow step closer. “I gave her a choice: run away and live like a rat in the shadows, or spend twenty years in a maximum-security prison while I convinced Arthur she was a thief. She chose to run. She was a coward. And it seems she raised one, too.”
“My mother was not a coward!” Nora yelled, her voice trembling with rage. “She suffered every single day to keep me safe from you!”
“And yet, look where you are,” Victoria laughed, a cold, metallic sound. “Right back in my house. Right back under my heel. You think Arthur is going to save you? Look out that window.”
Nora glanced sideways toward the floor-to-ceiling glass wall overlooking the courtyard. Through the glass, she saw two men in black suits sprinting toward the mansion’s side entrance. They weren’t paramedics. They carried heavy leather cases.
“My private security detail,” Victoria whispered, leaning in so close Nora could smell her expensive perfume. “By the time Arthur recovers from his little ‘episode,’ you will have vanished. A tragic story, really. A desperate maid who tried to rob the mansion, got caught, and fled into the night... only to meet a tragic accident in the river.”
Nora’s mind raced. Think. Think!
“You’re too late, Victoria,” Nora said, pulling the manila folder halfway out of her apron. “Arthur already knows about the locket. If I disappear now, who do you think he’s going to suspect?”
Victoria’s eyes narrowed, but before she could speak, a loud BANG rattled the study door.
“Victoria! Open this door right now!”
It was Arthur’s voice—weak, but filled with undeniable fury. He wasn’t dying. He had managed to crawl out of the kitchen.
Victoria’s face tightened. She realized her time was up. In a split-second decision, she grabbed a heavy bronze paperweight from the desk and smashed it against her own forehead.
Blood instantly trickled down Victoria’s temple. She dropped the paperweight, tore the collar of her silk dress, and let out a piercing scream.
“Help! Security! She’s attacking me!” Victoria shrieked, throwing herself onto the floor and sobbing hysterically.
The study door was kicked open. Two armed estate guards burst in, weapons raised, with Arthur leaning heavily against the doorframe behind them, gasping for breath.
“She tried to kill me!” Victoria sobbed from the floor, pointing a blood-stained finger at Nora. “She took the pills! She tried to steal Father’s documents and when I caught her, she hit me!”
The guards immediately lowered their weapons toward Nora.
“Drop to the ground! Hands behind your head now!” the lead guard barked.
Nora looked at Arthur. His face was pale, his eyes darting between his bleeding stepdaughter and the terrified girl holding the stolen files.
“Grandfather, please!” Nora cried out, using the word for the first time. “She’s lying! She called men to kill me!”
Arthur looked torn, overwhelmed by the chaos, his hand clutching his chest as the nitroglycerin deficiency took its toll. He staggered forward, reaching for the desk, but collapsed onto his knees once more.
“Take her to the holding room in the basement,” Victoria ordered the guards, her voice dripping with venom behind her fake tears. “Until the police arrive!”
May you like
Before Nora could move, one of the guards grabbed her rough by the arm, twisting it behind her back. The manila folder dropped from her apron, sliding across the floor and stopping right at Arthur’s trembling hands.
As Nora was dragged out into the dark hallway, she saw Arthur’s hand close around the folder. And for a brief second, through the pain and confusion in his eyes, a spark of horrifying realization ignited.
