Chapter 1 - The Click Above Her Head
“Don't move. If you take one step, I'll make sure you and your little boy are homeless by morning.”
Rachel Collins stood beneath a 600-pound crystal chandelier, her injured ankle throbbing as she balanced a silver tray.
Above her, something clicked.
Vanessa Harrington, the elegant fiancée of Mafia boss Alexander DeLuca, smiled coldly.
“Stand straight, Rachel. You're embarrassing me.”
Two hundred guests were celebrating inside Alexander's New York mansion. Nobody noticed the terrified maid staring at the ceiling.
Nobody except Alexander.
He heard another metallic click, stopped the orchestra, and pulled Rachel away just as a steel bolt struck the marble floor.
Fresh tool marks covered its head.
When Vanessa claimed Rachel was being punished for spilling champagne, an elderly guest named Eleanor Whitmore exposed the lie.
In Alexander's private sitting room, Rachel revealed something worse.
She had seen Vanessa meeting an unidentified man near the maintenance corridor. They discussed the chandelier, the final dance, and Alexander's missing brother, Nathan.
Nathan had disappeared eight months earlier.
His abandoned car had recently been found near a reservoir.
But the man had asked whether Nathan had told Alexander about a mysterious foundation.
Vanessa's response had terrified Rachel.
“Nathan won't be telling anyone anything.”
Investigating the east wing, Alexander discovered a brass key, fresh footprints, and a photograph showing Nathan alive just three days earlier.
A recording in Nathan's voice revealed that their late father had secretly paid eighteen million dollars to keep someone hidden.
Someone believed to be dead.
Before Alexander could investigate further, Vanessa took Rachel hostage.
A threatening photograph appeared on his phone.
Then Nathan's voice came through Thomas Reed's security radio.
“Alex... don't let her start the music.”
Alexander demanded an explanation.
“The chandelier was never meant to fall on the maid,” Nathan whispered.
“She was supposed to make you save her.”
Suddenly, Alexander's wedding song began playing downstairs.
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Above the ballroom, a heavy mechanical lock released.
CLICK.
