Chapter 4 - The House With No Lights
Nora refused to follow Luis until he proved he was who he claimed to be. He gave her the serial number of Ethan’s first prototype, the nickname Ethan used for his battered blue toolbox, and the name of the dog that used to sleep under the workbench.
Only then did she unlock the doors.
Luis climbed into the back seat, breathing hard. “Your uncle’s people are checking every hotel and rental car in the city. They know you’re here.”
“How?” Nora asked.
“Because Richard still has access to your family security account.”
She drove to the Vale family home on the north side, a stone mansion tucked behind bare oak trees. Her mother had always left every downstairs lamp on during December.
Tonight, the place looked abandoned.
Nora tried her key. The lock had been changed.
Adrian knocked on the side entrance, then stepped back when the door opened. Celeste stood there in a cream sweater, her hair pulled into a loose knot. She looked older than she had at the funeral, and more frightened.
“You shouldn’t have come,” she whispered.
“Everyone keeps saying that.” Nora pushed past her. “I’m tired of being told where I can go.”
Celeste saw Luis and went pale. “You brought him here?”
“He knows what happened to Ethan.”
“So do I.” Her mother’s voice cracked. “And I’ve spent fourteen months trying to keep you alive.”
Nora stared at her. “What does that mean?”
Celeste looked toward the hallway camera. “Not here.”
They moved into the kitchen, where the old wall clock had stopped at 11:42. Nora noticed a fresh scratch on the pantry door and a broken piece of brass on the counter.
“Someone searched my room,” she said.
Her mother nodded. “Richard sent security this morning. He said he was looking for company property.”
“What did he take?”
“I don’t know.” Celeste looked at the brass token in Nora’s palm. “But I know what he’s afraid of.”
Before she could explain, the house alarm chimed once, then died. Every light went out.
Luis whispered, “They’re inside the gate.”
A heavy thud shook the front door.
Celeste grabbed Nora’s wrist. “There’s a passage behind the wine cellar. Your father built it when Richard first tried to take the company.”
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“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Because the passage ends in the old records room,” Celeste said. “And that’s where your father hid the thing that could destroy us all.”
