Chapter 3 - The Man in the Dark
Avery drove her heel backward with all the strength she had.
The man behind her grunted.
His hand slipped from her mouth.
Avery twisted away, holding Leo tightly against her body as the baby screamed.
“Liam!”
Furniture scraped across the marble floor. Charles shouted for security. Victoria demanded that someone restore the electricity.
Then Liam’s hand found Avery’s shoulder.
“I’ve got you.”
“Someone was behind me.”
“Where?”
“I don’t know.”
Emergency lights flickered on along the walls, bathing the ballroom in dim red light.
The room looked transformed.
The orchids appeared black.
The marble statues cast long shadows.
Avery searched the darkness.
One of the terrace doors stood open.
A security guard ran toward it, but Liam stopped him.
“Stay with my wife.”
Liam moved toward the terrace himself.
Avery grabbed his sleeve.
“No.”
“I need to see who it was.”
“And leave us alone again?”
The words came out harsher than she intended.
Liam froze.
For a second, pain crossed his face.
Then he nodded.
“You’re right.”
He turned to the guard.
“Lock down the estate. No one enters or leaves until every room is searched.”
Gerald Mercer, the security chief, entered through the side doors with two guards.
He was a broad-shouldered former federal agent who had protected the Sterlings for nearly fifteen years.
“The main power cable was manually cut,” Gerald said. “The backup system was disabled from inside the security office.”
Liam stared at him.
“Who had access?”
“Four members of my team.”
“And you.”
Gerald’s expression hardened.
“Yes. And me.”
Victoria stepped forward.
“This is absurd. Avery created a spectacle, the power failed, and now everyone is behaving as though we survived an assassination attempt.”
Avery looked at her.
“A man grabbed me.”
Victoria’s gaze dropped to Leo.
“Did you see him?”
“No.”
“Then perhaps in the confusion—”
Liam turned toward his mother.
“Stop.”
Victoria blinked.
It was the first time Avery had ever heard Liam speak to her that way.
“Someone put his hands on my wife while she was holding my son,” Liam said. “You will not explain it away.”
Charles moved toward the open terrace.
On the floor beside the curtain lay a small white envelope.
He bent down.
“Don’t touch it,” Gerald warned.
But Charles had already picked it up.
There was no name written on the front.
Inside was a single photograph.
Charles stared at it, then slowly handed it to Avery.
The photograph showed a young woman standing beside a hospital bed.
She had dark hair, gentle eyes, and a familiar smile.
Avery recognized her immediately.
Her grandmother, Rose.
The woman Rose stood beside was Margaret Sterling.
On the back of the photograph, someone had written four words in black ink.
Margaret should have stayed silent.
Avery’s hands went cold.
“This picture was in the trust folder.”
Gerald examined the envelope.
“Then whoever left this had access to the safe.”
Victoria looked at Charles.
“Who else knew the safe combination?”
Charles did not answer immediately.
“My father. You. Me.”
“And?” Liam asked.
Charles looked toward Gerald.
“And Edmund Vale.”
Avery had heard the name only once before.
Edmund Vale had served as Sterling Financial’s general counsel for more than thirty years. He had retired five years earlier and had not attended the celebration.
“Why would the company lawyer know?” Avery asked.
“He drafted many of my father’s private agreements,” Charles said.
Victoria’s face tightened.
“Edmund is seventy-four years old and recovering from heart surgery. He did not cut the electricity and attack Avery.”
“No,” Avery said. “But he may know who did.”
Liam took out his phone.
“There’s no signal.”
Gerald checked his own device.
“The estate’s private cellular repeater is down.”
“Landline?”
“Disconnected.”
Avery looked toward the terrace.
Someone had not merely frightened her.
They had isolated the entire estate.
A loud crash came from the hallway.
One of the guards shouted.
Liam moved in front of Avery as Gerald drew his weapon.
A man staggered through the doorway.
His white security shirt was covered in blood.
“Daniel!” Gerald rushed toward him.
The guard collapsed onto the floor.
A deep wound ran across his forehead.
Gerald checked his pulse.
“He’s alive.”
Daniel’s eyes opened.
“The library,” he whispered.
“What happened in the library?” Gerald asked.
Daniel struggled to breathe.
“They took the original.”
Avery’s heart dropped.
“The trust document?”
Daniel nodded.
“Two men. Masks. They knew the house.”
Gerald looked toward his team.
“Seal the library.”
Daniel grabbed Avery’s wrist unexpectedly.
“One of them said your name.”
“What did he say?”
The injured guard swallowed.
“He said Avery would lead them to the second copy.”
Every person in the ballroom looked at her.
Liam’s voice was low.
“Is there a second copy?”
Avery hesitated.
She had promised her attorney she would tell no one.
Not Liam.
Not Charles.
Especially not Victoria.
But the trust amendment referenced a second original held outside the Sterling estate. Avery did not know where it was. She had only one clue: a handwritten note from Margaret.
When the house turns against you, return to the place where roses survive winter.
Avery had believed it referred to her grandmother Rose.
Now she wondered whether it described a real location.
“I don’t have it,” she said.
Victoria studied her face.
“But you know something.”
Avery said nothing.
The estate lights suddenly returned.
The chandeliers blazed to life.
Everyone blinked against the brightness.
Gerald’s radio crackled.
A guard’s voice came through.
“Mr. Mercer, we found an abandoned vehicle near the east gate.”
“Anyone inside?”
“No. But there’s something in the trunk.”
Gerald looked at Liam.
“What?”
The radio hissed again.
“A body.”
Avery held Leo closer.
Ten minutes later, police vehicles entered the estate.
The dead man in the trunk was identified before midnight.
His name was Henry Cole.
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He had worked for Sterling Financial twenty-eight years earlier as an internal auditor.
And according to company records, Henry had died in a boating accident seventeen years ago.
