Chapter 6 - The Trap Snapped Back
Down in the kitchen, Mara was kneeling beside June, helping the little girl zip up her pink winter jacket, when Lily burst through the pantry door, breathless and wild-eyed.
“Mara! She was in your room! She put something in your coat!” Lily gasped, grabbing Mara’s arm.
Mara stood up immediately, her instincts locking into place. She looked at Lily, then at June, whose lower lip was beginning to tremble.
“Listen to me, Lily,” Mara said, her voice steady and calm, projecting an authority that made the ten-year-old instantly quiet down. “Take June through the service corridor right now. Go out to the gardener’s cottage by the greenhouse. Mr. Cal left the back door open. Stay inside, lock the deadbolt, and do not open it for anyone except Mr. Grant or myself. Do you understand?”
“What about you?” Lily asked, panic rising in her voice.
“I’m going to finish cleaning up,” Mara said, offering a reassuring, gentle smile. “Everything is going to be fine. Go.”
Without hesitation, Lily grabbed her sister’s hand and bolted through the pantry door toward the secure garden exit.
Mara watched them go until the heavy door clicked shut. Then, she walked slowly out of the kitchen toward the main hallway.
She didn't have to wait long.
A minute later, the sound of sharp, furious high heels echoed down the hall. Vanessa Reed appeared around the corner, flanked by Marcus, her face twisted into a mask of righteous outrage.
“Mara!” Vanessa called out, her voice carrying across the entire foyer. “Stop right there.”
Mara turned, standing by the console table with her hands folded neatly over her apron. She didn't speak. She simply waited.
Vanessa marched up to her, stopping two feet away, her eyes flashing with venom. “I was up in the staff wing looking for you to discuss lunch arrangements, and I happened to notice something extraordinary hanging in your wardrobe.”
Mara raised one eyebrow. “My wardrobe, Ms. Reed?”
“Don't play innocent with me!” Vanessa snapped, turning to her brother. “Marcus, go up to the third floor. Room three-b. Check the pocket of the black wool coat hanging in her wardrobe.”
Marcus smirked, turning toward the grand staircase.
“You won't need to go far, Mr. Reed,” a deep, resonant voice echoed from the shadows of the library archway.
Marcus froze.
Vanessa spun around.
From the dim corridor beside the study, Grant Whitaker stepped out into the bright light of the foyer. His coat was off, his sleeves rolled up to his elbows, and his face was carved from absolute, unyielding granite. Behind him walked Cal Mercer, flanked by two uniformed state troopers with their hands resting casually on their duty belts.
The silence that fell over the foyer was absolute.
Vanessa’s face lost every trace of color. Her lips parted, but no sound came out.
“Looking for this, Vanessa?” Grant asked softly.
May you like
He raised his right hand. Between his thumb and forefinger dangled the platinum-and-sapphire tennis bracelet belonging to Evelyn—the very bracelet Vanessa had hidden in Mara’s coat pocket less than three minutes earlier.
Grant had watched every second of it on monitor fourteen.
