Chapter 2 - The Empty Vault
Raymond stared at the glowing screen before pocketing the device without a word. He knelt before Clara, gently examining her wrists and ankles for fractures. ""Are you hurt anywhere else?""
""Just bruised... and shaken,"" she murmured, clutching her silk robe tighter. ""Raymond, why would Cynthia do this? What was she looking for up there?""
Instead of answering, Raymond stood and signaled his head of security, Marcus, who appeared in the doorway with two armed guards. ""Stay with my wife. If anyone steps within ten feet of this room, shoot.""
Raymond took the grand staircase two steps at a time, ignoring the splintered mahogany rail where Clara had been hurled over the drop. He pushed open the double doors of his private suite. The heavy steel door of his hidden wall safe hung ajar. Inside, the velvet-lined trays were empty. The family heirloom ledger, containing hundred-year-old land deeds and offshore account keys, was gone.
May you like
Beneath the empty compartment lay a single piece of torn paper. Written in Cynthia’s unmistakable elegant script were three words: He never loved you.
Before Raymond could turn, the lights across the entire wing blinked out, plunging the second floor into suffocating darkness, followed instantly by the sound of glass shattering downstairs.
