Chapter 2 - The Brass Key
Caleb tore his arm free.
“What was that?”
Sloane’s smile returned too fast. “What was what?”
He bent toward the marble floor.
She stepped on the key.
It happened so smoothly that half the room missed it.
Caleb did not.
“Move your foot.”
“Caleb, everyone is watching.”
“I said move.”
Her face tightened.
Thomas appeared beside them. “Enough. Your mother needs medical attention, not an audience.”
Caleb looked toward the ballroom doors. The guards had already disappeared with Margaret.
“Where are they taking her?”
“To a quiet room.”
“What room?”
Thomas did not answer.
That silence hit harder than any explanation.
Caleb stepped closer to Sloane. “Move.”
She finally lifted her foot.
He picked up the brass key.
A narrow metal tag hung from it.
B-17.
No hotel logo. No room number. No name.
Just B-17.
Sloane whispered, “Give me that.”
Caleb stared at her.
“You know what it opens.”
“No.”
“You just asked for it.”
“I’m trying to help you.”
“Then tell me why my mother showed up looking like she crawled out of a ditch.”
A murmur moved through the guests.
Sloane’s father, Victor Whitmore, rose from the front row. He was a silver-haired man who had spent thirty years making people feel poor with a glance.
“This is not the time.”
Caleb laughed once, without humor. “My mother was dragged out of my wedding, and somehow this isn’t the time?”
Victor’s eyes shifted toward Thomas.
Tiny movement.
But Caleb saw it.
An agreement passed between the two fathers without a word.
Caleb put the key in his pocket.
“I’m finding my mother.”
Sloane blocked him.
“If you walk out now, you humiliate me in front of everyone.”
He looked at her ivory-gold dress, the flowers, the chandeliers, the guests holding their breath.
Then he looked toward the doors where his mother had vanished.
“My mother reached for me like she thought she’d never see me again.”
He stepped around Sloane.
The hotel event manager hurried toward him.
“Mr. Hart?”
“What?”
“There’s a problem.”
The man lowered his voice.
“The guards never took your mother to a quiet room.”
Caleb stopped.
“Then where did they take her?”
May you like
The manager swallowed.
“Down to the service garage.”
