Chapter 2 - The Locked Study
The alarm was not a fire alarm.
Emma knew because she had heard it once before, two nights earlier, while hiding in the service hallway outside Adrian Cross's private study.
A soft electronic chime repeated through the villa.
Three notes.
Pause.
Three notes again.
Adrian turned toward the house.
"That's my office security system."
Vivian put down her champagne glass too quickly.
"Then go check it."
Adrian stared at her. "Why are you telling me what to do?"
"Because your office alarm is going off, Adrian."
Emma watched Vivian's right hand close around her small blue evening bag.
Inside that bag was a key card.
Emma had seen it twelve minutes earlier when Vivian opened the bag to get lipstick.
A black key card with a silver H embossed on the corner.
Harrington Private Trust.
The same trust named in the final email Emma's mother had sent before she died.
Adrian stepped toward Emma. "Who are you?"
"Your waitress," Vivian snapped.
Emma almost smiled.
"That's what you hired me to be."
A security guard appeared at the doors. "Mr. Cross, the study safe just sent an unauthorized-access alert."
Adrian's jaw tightened.
"Nobody is supposed to be in there."
"Maybe somebody is," Emma said.
Vivian's eyes cut toward her.
There it was again. Fear.
Not anger.
Fear.
Adrian pointed to the guard. "Lock the front gate. Nobody leaves until I know what's happening."
Several guests immediately began protesting.
Emma's heart kicked hard.
That had not been part of the plan.
Marcus, her lawyer, was supposed to freeze three shell-company accounts while Emma slipped out through the catering entrance.
Now the gate was locked.
And the phone in Emma's hand vibrated.
One text.
MARCUS: ACCOUNT 3 WAS EMPTIED TEN MINUTES AGO.
A second text arrived.
MARCUS: SOMEONE KNEW WE WERE COMING.
Emma looked up.
Vivian was no longer beside the pool.
"Where did she go?" Emma asked.
Lauren Price lowered her glass.
Her smile was gone.
"Toward the study," she whispered.
Then she leaned close enough that only Emma could hear.
May you like
"And if she gets there before you, your mother died for nothing."
The service-hall camera above them rotated with a soft mechanical click. Someone on the security system was watching Emma run toward the study in real time.
