Chapter 6 - Trapped in the East WingThe heavy thud of the security guards’ boots against the parquet flooring echoed like a death knell.
Rachel pulled Emma closer, shielding the little girl’s face against her chest. “Please… please let us go. She’s just a child. She won't say anything to anyone, I swear it!”
Madison laughed, a cold, empty sound. “Loose ends are such a messy business, Rachel. And I’ve worked too hard, for too many years, to let a cleaning lady and her hallucinating kid unravel my entire life’s work.”
Adrian’s fists clenched so tightly his fingernails dug into his palms, drawing blood. He looked at the two armed security guards, then at his brother, and finally at Madison. He had spent three years blaming himself, mourning a ghost, while the architects of his misery sat at his family dinner table every single night.
“You think you’ve won?” Adrian asked, his voice deathly quiet.
“We have the guards, we have the house, and downstairs, three hundred of the most influential people in Chicago are eating hors d'oeuvres and waiting for you to announce your engagement,” Caleb said with an arrogant smirk. “By midnight, you’ll either sign the NDA and transfer control of your assets to us voluntarily, or you’ll have a sudden, tragic medical emergency right here in Claire’s old room.”
Natalie stepped in front of Adrian, shielding him with her slight frame. “You’ll have to kill us both, Caleb. And mother—are you just going to stand there and watch your own son and daughter get murdered in your own house?”
Margaret Westwood stood by the vanity, her hands trembling violently. She looked at Caleb, then at Adrian. The matriarch’s face was a mask of utter defeat.
“Caleb… Madison… stop this,” Margaret pleaded, her voice cracking. “This has gone too far. We can’t—we can’t spill blood in this house. The police will investigate eventually!”
“The police are already in our pocket, Mother,” Caleb snapped, gesturing to the guards. “Grab them. Tie them up in the walk-in closet. We’ll deal with them after the gala wraps up and the guests clear out.”
The two guards lunged forward.
Before Adrian could react, Natalie grabbed a heavy crystal perfume bottle from the vanity and hurled it with all her might. It shattered against the lead guard’s forehead, sending him stumbling backward with a roar of pain.
“Run!” Adrian screamed.
He threw his weight directly into Caleb, sending his brother crashing backward into the mahogany shelving. Books, picture frames, and mementos rained down around them in a chaotic avalanche.
“Rachel, take Emma and Natalie! Get out through the service fire escape!” Adrian yelled, trading punches with the second guard who had lunged at him.
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The guard caught Adrian with a heavy right hook to the jaw, sending Adrian crashing against the edge of the bed. Taste of copper filled his mouth.
“Get them!” Madison shrieked, pointing at Rachel, who was sprinting down the hallway toward the service stairs with Emma in her arms.
