Chapter 3 - THE EMPTY BOTTLE
The power returned in less than four minutes, but the house did not feel safe again.
Sebastian ordered every exterior gate sealed and every employee brought to the servants' dining room for identification.
The missing bodyguard was named Cole Brennan.
He had worked for Sebastian for eleven years.
He knew the mansion's security routes, emergency circuits, blind corners, and backup keys.
He also knew exactly where Evie's bedroom was.
When they reached the upstairs suite, the wall safe behind Daniel's painting hung open.
Nothing inside remained except a velvet jewelry tray and one empty prescription bottle lying on its side.
Evie recognized it immediately.
“That was the bottle.”
Sebastian picked it up using a handkerchief.
The pharmacy label had been peeled away.
“Was it full?”
“Almost.”
“Did Daniel know you weren't taking them?”
“I told him they made me nervous.”
“Did he argue?”
“He told me not to act paranoid.”
The word sounded different now.
Sebastian handed the bottle to Helen, who had joined them with a medical bag.
She sniffed it, then frowned.
“There is residue.”
“Can you identify it?”
“Not here.”
Evie looked at the safe.
“What else was in there?”
Daniel, escorted into the room, answered too quickly.
“Nothing important.”
Sebastian turned.
“You ran toward this room during the lockdown.”
“I wanted my passport.”
“Your passport is in the downstairs safe.”
Daniel's eyes flashed.
“Then I forgot.”
Evie almost laughed at the cruelty of the irony.
He had spent months telling her she forgot things.
Now memory had suddenly become his defense.
Lauren stood in the doorway with her arms folded.
She looked composed again, but Evie noticed a small streak of blood along one of her gold earrings.
“Your ear is bleeding.”
Lauren's hand flew to it.
She looked surprised.
“A scratch.”
“From what?”
“I don't know.”
Sebastian's head turned toward her.
During the blackout, glass had shattered upstairs.
Lauren claimed she never left the library.
Yet something had cut her ear.
One of Sebastian's men entered with a clear evidence bag.
“We found this on the east staircase.”
Inside was a tiny gold clasp.
It matched Lauren's earring.
Daniel swore under his breath.
Lauren did not look at him.
Sebastian's voice became frighteningly calm.
“You were upstairs.”
“No.”
“The earring says otherwise.”
“The earring says part of my earring was upstairs.”
Lauren looked at Evie.
“Maybe someone planted it.”
Evie felt the accusation before Lauren spoke it.
“Someone who wants me blamed.”
Daniel seized the opening.
“Evie has hated Lauren for months.”
Sebastian laughed once without humor.
“She discovered tonight that you were sleeping with her.”
Daniel's expression twisted.
“That is not what happened.”
Evie stepped closer.
“Then tell me what happened.”
Silence.
“Tell me why she was in your hotel room in Chicago.”
Daniel froze.
Lauren looked at him sharply.
That reaction gave Evie a small, bitter satisfaction.
She had not known about Chicago.
She had guessed.
Daniel had confirmed it with his face.
Sebastian's gaze narrowed.
“You two can continue lying if you like.”
He pointed at the hall.
“But you will do it downstairs where I can watch you.”
When Daniel and Lauren were removed, Evie stayed in the bedroom.
She opened drawers while Sebastian's security men searched vents, closets, and electronics.
Her hands shook, but she refused to stop.
She wanted something solid.
A document.
A message.
Anything that proved her life had not become a nightmare because she had missed one obvious affair.
At the bottom of Daniel's wardrobe, beneath a stack of folded sweaters, she found a gray envelope.
Her name was written across the front.
EVELYN MERCER CROSS - CLINICAL SUMMARY.
Her knees nearly gave way.
Inside were four pages on the letterhead of a private psychiatric practice she had never visited.
The document described mood instability, paranoid thinking, emotional dysregulation, and episodes of aggressive behavior.
It listed consultation dates when Evie had been in another state.
The signature at the bottom belonged to Dr.
Malcolm Reeve.
Sebastian read the first page and swore.
“Do you know him?”
“He treated Daniel after his mother died.”
Evie looked at the document again.
“Why would he write this?”
“Money.”
“You sound sure.”
“I've known Malcolm for thirty years.”
“That didn't answer me.”
Sebastian's eyes met hers.
“No.”
It had answered too much.
Evie tucked the papers back into the envelope.
“What aren't you telling me?”
Sebastian turned toward the window.
“Your father believed there was a faction inside the company willing to use private physicians, lawyers, and board votes to remove people they considered inconvenient.”
“Who?”
“I never knew all of them.”
“Did you know any?”
“Yes.”
“Names.”
He looked at her.
“Not until I can prove it.”
Evie shook her head.
“Secrets again.”
A security officer entered before Sebastian could respond.
“Sir, we found Brennan's jacket near the greenhouse.”
“Where is he?”
“Gone.”
“The gates are sealed.”
“He did not use the gate.”
The officer held out a tablet showing a thermal map of the estate.
“There is an old service tunnel under the east lawn.”
Sebastian frowned.
“That tunnel was bricked shut fifteen years ago.”
“Apparently not.”
Evie looked at the floor.
Her father had helped design the original mansion renovation.
She remembered him once joking that rich families loved secret exits because they imagined themselves as kings.
Sebastian read her expression.
“You know something.”
“My father knew those tunnels.”
Sebastian's face changed.
The same regret returned.
Then a phone rang in Daniel's nightstand.
Everyone looked at it.
The device was not Daniel's normal phone.
It was a cheap prepaid handset.
Sebastian answered on speaker.
No one spoke on the other end at first.
Then a distorted voice said one sentence.
“Stop searching for Brennan if you want the baby to be born alive.”
The call ended.
May you like
Evie stared at the phone.
For the first time that night, Sebastian looked afraid.
