Chapter 6 - Shadows in the Nursery
Back at the Blackwood mansion, the heavy oak door of the nursery remained firmly deadbolted.
Inside, the room was warm and quiet. Ethan was stirring slightly in his crib, letting out a soft whimper as his little body adjusted to the pain of his healing arm. Lily immediately hurried over, gently stroking his forehead with a damp cloth until his breathing evened out once more.
She checked her watch. It had been nearly two hours since Victor left for the docks. The mansion felt too quiet—an unnatural, suffocating stillness that made the hairs on the back of her neck stand up.
Tap. Tap. Tap.
A soft, rhythmic sound came from the hallway door.
Lily froze, holding her breath.
"Lily?" a muffled voice whispered through the heavy wood. "Open up. It’s Marcus. The boss sent me back to check on the perimeter."
Lily narrowed her eyes. Something was wrong. Marcus never called her by her first name when they were on active security protocols; he always addressed her formally as "Miss Miller." Furthermore, the cadence of the voice felt slightly off—too rushed, too breathless.
"Marcus?" Lily called out, keeping her voice steady as she slowly backed toward the corner where the emergency panic button was hidden behind the rocking chair. "Did Victor... did Victor send you alone?"
"Yes, yes, hurry up and open the bolt," the voice hissed, becoming sharper and more insistent. "We have a security breach on the north wing. I need to secure Ethan in the panic room right now."
Lily’s heart hammered against her ribs. She remembered Victor’s strict, absolute instruction: Don't open the door for anyone except me or Marcus. And if Marcus sounds wrong, don't open it at all.
"Give me the code," Lily said loudly.
"What code? There’s no time for codes, just open the damn—"
"If you're Marcus, you know the daily override code," Lily interrupted, her hand sliding behind the chair frame until her fingers brushed the cold metal plate of the panic button.
Silence descended on the hallway outside. The heavy breathing stopped entirely.
A second later, a brutal, metallic scraping sound echoed against the door panel. Someone was trying to jam a heavy crowbar into the door frame. The wood groaned, splintering loudly as brute force was applied to break the heavy deadbolt.
Lily didn't hesitate anymore. She slammed her palm down hard onto the emergency panic button.
WEE-WOO-WEE-WOO.
A deafening, low-frequency security siren instantly flooded the entire upper floor of the mansion. Red strobe lights flashed furiously along the hallway cornices.
Outside the nursery door, a furious curse echoed in a strange, gravelly voice that definitely belonged to neither Victor nor Marcus.
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"Bitch!" a man roared, throwing his full weight against the door. The reinforced wood held, but the hinges shrieked in protest, spraying splinters across the nursery floor.
Lily scooped Ethan out of his crib, ignoring the ache in her bruised stomach, and hurried into the adjoining reinforced walk-in safe room just as the heavy wooden door of the nursery finally gave way with a deafening crash.
