Chapter 2 - THE FAMILY RULE
The service corridor opened behind a linen closet near the west staircase.
I stepped into the hallway without making a sound.
From downstairs, Brenda’s voice floated upward.
“She’ll come around.”
Someone laughed.
Derek answered.
“She has to.”
I stopped walking.
Then I activated the recorder.
Another male voice asked whether Derek had gone too far.
Derek laughed.
“You don’t understand Chloe.”
“She’s soft.”
“She thinks marriage is about feelings.”
Brenda replied immediately.
“That’s why this has to happen now.”
My fingers tightened around the phone.
Then Brenda said something that removed the last fragment of doubt from my mind.
“Break the habits before they become expectations.”
The room downstairs laughed again.
I moved closer to the staircase.
I could see part of the dining room through the railing.
Derek stood beside the buffet holding a glass of champagne.
The filthy towel lay on the floor exactly where I had dropped it.
Brenda was drinking coffee as calmly as if nothing had happened.
Aunt Patricia, one of Derek’s older relatives, looked uncomfortable.
She was the only person who wasn’t smiling.
“Where’s Chloe?” someone asked.
Derek glanced toward the ceiling.
“Thinking.”
Brenda corrected him.
“Learning.”
My phone vibrated.
Maya had sent another message.
“I pulled the metadata.”
“The guarantor form was created from Derek’s laptop at 8:13 this morning.”
I closed my eyes.
He had been beside me at 8:13.
I remembered it clearly.
I had awakened briefly because he was sitting at the desk.
He told me he was answering congratulations from friends.
I had rolled over and gone back to sleep.
He had been forging my financial consent less than twelve feet away from me.
Then Maya sent another file.
This one was worse.
The Wexlers had tried to pledge two assets as additional security.
One was a restaurant property in Boston.
The other was something called Bennett Family Trust Distribution Rights.
My inheritance.
Money Derek had absolutely no legal authority to touch.
The nausea disappeared.
Something colder replaced it.
I descended the rear staircase.
Nobody saw me.
At the bottom, Aunt Patricia suddenly appeared around the corner.
She froze when she saw me.
Her eyes moved toward my backpack.
Then toward the dining room.
“You need to leave,” she whispered.
“I know.”
“No.”
Her voice became urgent.
“You don’t understand.”
She glanced behind herself.
“They’ve done this before.”
My heart stopped.
“What do you mean?”
Patricia swallowed.
“Derek’s first fiancée.”
I stared at her.
Derek had told me he had never been engaged.
Patricia continued before I could speak.
“Her name was Lauren.”
“Brenda called her unstable.”
“They said she stole money.”
“She disappeared from this family overnight.”
My phone vibrated again.
A text from Derek appeared.
WHERE ARE YOU?
Then another.
ANSWER ME.
Then another.
YOU HAVE FIVE MINUTES TO COME DOWNSTAIRS.
I showed Patricia the screen.
She looked terrified.
“Don’t answer.”
“I wasn’t planning to.”
A shadow moved across the opposite hallway.
Patricia’s face drained of color.
“Go.”
I turned.
Derek stood at the far end of the corridor.
His expression changed when he saw the backpack.
May you like
The champagne glass was still in his hand.
“Where exactly do you think you’re going?”
