Chapter 2 - Eleven Missing Minutes
Vincent moved first.
“Grace, take Lily into the pantry. Lock the door.”
Adrian looked at him.
“No.”
Vincent paused.
“They stay where I can see them.”
Another burst of thunder rolled over the estate.
The wet footprints stretched from the entrance hall toward the eastern corridor.
Vincent drew his weapon.
Two security officers joined him.
Adrian followed.
“Sir, stay back.”
“It’s my house.”
“That doesn’t make you bulletproof.”
“It makes me responsible.”
Vincent knew arguing was pointless.
They moved slowly.
The footprints ended beside a decorative table beneath a mirror.
Nothing beyond it.
Vincent crouched.
“They’re fake.”
Adrian looked closer.
The water marks had no natural heel-to-toe pattern.
Someone had deliberately pressed wet shoes onto the marble.
“A distraction,” Adrian said.
Vincent immediately understood.
They ran back toward the dining room.
Grace and Lily were exactly where Adrian had left them.
Celeste still wasn’t.
“Where is she?” Adrian asked.
Grace shook her head.
“I thought she went upstairs.”
Adrian called Celeste.
No answer.
Again.
Nothing.
Vincent contacted the gatehouse.
“Has Ms. Vale left?”
The guard answered.
“No, sir.”
“Her car?”
“Still parked.”
Adrian looked toward the rear terrace.
A person could leave the estate without passing the gate.
But not easily.
Motion sensors covered the grounds.
Unless someone had disabled those too.
Vincent checked.
“South garden sensor is offline.”
“For how long?”
Vincent stared at the screen.
“Eleven minutes.”
The same eleven minutes.
Someone had created a perfect hole in the estate’s security system.
And knew exactly how to use it.
Adrian returned to Lily.
“You said you saw a man.”
Lily nodded.
“Tell me everything.”
Grace knelt beside her.
“It’s okay.”
Lily closed her eyes, concentrating.
“He was wearing gray.”
“A suit?”
“No. Like… workers wear.”
“Maintenance clothes?”
She nodded.
“He had something on his head.”
“A hat?”
“Yes.”
“Did you see his face?”
“Only from the side.”
“What did he look like?”
Lily frowned.
“Old.”
Grace gave Adrian an apologetic look.
“To her, thirty is old.”
“I heard that,” Vincent muttered.
Lily ignored him.
“He had a mark here.”
She touched her right cheek.
“What kind?”
“Like a line.”
“A scar?”
She nodded.
Adrian and Vincent exchanged a look.
Vincent asked, “Anything else?”
Lily thought.
“He smelled strange.”
Grace blinked.
“Smelled?”
“Like Grandpa’s garage.”
“Gasoline?”
“No.”
Adrian crouched lower.
“Think carefully.”
Lily sniffed the air as if trying to remember.
“Paint.”
Vincent looked toward the missing portrait upstairs.
Adrian’s stomach tightened.
A restoration expert.
Or someone pretending to be one.
“Did he speak?”
“He told me the upstairs hallway was closed.”
“When?”
“This afternoon.”
Grace went white.
“You went upstairs?”
“I was looking for Mr. Moretti.”
Adrian looked at Grace.
“You were here all afternoon?”
“Yes. We stayed because the weather got bad.”
“Did you see the man?”
“No.”
That meant Lily had crossed paths with someone inside Adrian’s supposedly secure home while no adult knew he existed.
Vincent’s phone rang.
He answered.
His expression darkened.
“What?”
He listened.
Then disconnected.
“The laboratory team is fifteen minutes away.”
“For the glass?”
“And the note.”
Adrian nodded.
Vincent continued.
“There’s something else.”
“What?”
“Celeste’s phone just came online.”
“Where?”
Vincent turned his tablet around.
The signal was inside the estate.
More precisely—
Adrian’s private library.
They climbed upstairs.
The library door was locked.
Adrian opened it.
Celeste’s phone lay in the center of his desk.
No Celeste.
Beside the phone was her engagement ring.
Grace covered Lily’s eyes.
Vincent moved toward the balcony.
Locked from inside.
No sign anyone had entered.
Adrian picked up the ring.
Underneath it was another message.
SHE LIED TO YOU FIRST.
Adrian’s face remained unreadable.
Vincent asked, “What does that mean?”
Adrian looked at Celeste’s phone.
“Let’s find out.”
He unlocked it.
Celeste had once insisted they know each other’s passcodes.
She had called it trust.
Adrian opened her recent messages.
Nothing unusual.
Then Vincent pointed.
“Deleted folder.”
Adrian restored the last conversation.
There were seven messages from an unsaved number.
The first read:
You promised this would be finished before the wedding.
The second:
He can never see the documents.
The third:
Use your access. Nobody will question you.
Celeste had replied:
I said I would help you get inside. I never agreed to hurt him.
Adrian read the line twice.
Grace whispered, “Oh my God.”
Lily peeked between her mother’s fingers.
Vincent continued scrolling.
Another message.
You stopped having a choice a long time ago, Celeste.
The final incoming message had been received that morning.
Tonight we correct your mistake.
Vincent looked at Adrian.
“She helped someone enter.”
“Yes.”
“But she may not have known about the glass.”
“Maybe.”
“You still want her found alive?”
Adrian’s eyes turned hard.
“Especially now.”
Because anger could wait.
Answers could not.
The phone suddenly vibrated in Adrian’s hand.
An incoming video call.
Unknown number.
Vincent motioned everyone silent.
Adrian answered.
The screen was dark.
Then a woman’s face appeared.
Celeste.
Her perfect hair was partly undone.
There was blood near her temple.
She looked terrified.
“Adrian.”
“Where are you?”
“I don’t know.”
The picture shook.
“Listen to me,” she whispered. “The card was mine.”
Vincent leaned closer.
Celeste continued.
“But I didn’t switch your glass.”
“Who did?”
Tears filled her eyes.
“I thought they wanted the file.”
“What file?”
“You know which one.”
“The trust agreement?”
Celeste nodded.
Adrian felt Grace watching him.
“What did you tell them?”
“Nothing about Lily. I swear.”
Adrian froze.
“Why would you mention Lily?”
Celeste’s breathing changed.
“I didn’t.”
“You just did.”
Silence.
“Celeste.”
Her eyes flicked toward someone outside the camera.
Then she whispered, “Don’t let them take the girl.”
The video ended.
Adrian immediately called back.
Disconnected.
Vincent stared at the black screen.
“Why would anyone care about Lily?”
Grace stepped backward.
Adrian saw it.
A tiny movement.
But unmistakable.
Fear.
Not confusion.
He looked directly at her.
“You know.”
Grace shook her head too fast.
“No.”
“Grace.”
“I don’t.”
“You just reacted before I finished speaking.”
She pulled Lily closer.
Vincent locked the library door.
Adrian lowered his voice.
“Someone switched my glass. Someone stole a legal document. Someone kidnapped my fiancée. And now she’s warning me that an eight-year-old child is involved.”
Grace’s eyes filled.
“I never wanted this to reach her.”
Adrian went completely still.
“Reach her from what?”
Grace looked at Lily.
Then at Adrian.
“I need to tell you something about Lily’s father.”
Before she could continue, a violent crash came from downstairs.
One of the security officers shouted.
Vincent ran toward the door.
Adrian followed.
They reached the entrance hall to find a man in a gray maintenance uniform lying unconscious beside the staircase.
A fresh scar ran down his cheek.
Lily gasped.
“That’s him!”
Vincent rolled the man over.
There was blood on his collar.
His pockets were empty.
Except for one photograph.
Adrian picked it up.
The image showed Grace standing outside a courthouse nine years earlier.
Beside her was a man Adrian recognized immediately.
A man who had supposedly died seven years ago.
May you like
Adrian looked from the photograph to Grace.
“Why are you standing next to my brother?”
