Chapter 14 - The Betrayal Inside the House
The search for Diane became desperate.
Forty-eight hours remained.
Then thirty-six.
Then twenty-four.
At eleven that night, Marcus called.
“We found her.”
Diane was hiding in a motel outside Philadelphia.
Julian sent a car.
Sarah insisted on going.
They arrived shortly after midnight.
The motel room door stood open.
Sarah’s heart sank.
Inside, the room was empty.
A lamp had been knocked over.
Diane’s purse remained on the bed.
But there was no Diane.
Marcus checked the bathroom.
Nothing.
Then Sarah noticed a folded receipt beneath the telephone.
Numbers had been written on the back.
Margaret recognized them.
“A bank box number.”
Julian immediately contacted the bank.
The safe deposit box was registered under Diane’s married name.
The branch opened at eight.
They could retrieve the document in the morning.
For the first time, everyone relaxed.
That lasted eleven minutes.
Marcus received a security alert.
Someone had just accessed Vance Capital’s internal legal system.
All documents relating to Leo’s trust had been deleted.
The login belonged to Rebecca Cole.
Everyone turned toward her.
Rebecca stared at the screen.
“I did not do that.”
Julian’s security team checked her laptop.
A remote access program had been installed three weeks earlier.
Someone had compromised her device.
Marcus traced the connection.
The signal originated inside Julian’s own penthouse.
Only four people had been there regularly.
Julian.
Marcus.
Leo.
And Julian’s longtime house manager, Evelyn Price.
Sarah froze.
Evelyn had watched Leo several times.
She had made him cookies.
She had driven him to school.
Julian looked devastated.
“Bring her in.”
Evelyn was found packing a suitcase.
When confronted, she broke down.
Conrad had been paying her for six years.
She had given him schedules.
Documents.
Private conversations.
And three days earlier, she had told Victoria where Sarah’s apartment was.
Sarah went cold.
“You helped them break into my home?”
Evelyn began crying.
“I never thought anyone would get hurt.”
Sarah stood.
“My child was threatened.”
Evelyn covered her face.
Julian looked like a man watching another piece of his life collapse.
Then Evelyn whispered something.
“There is one thing Conrad does not know.”
Everyone stopped.
“When Victoria came here last week, she used Julian’s study.”
“I heard her arguing on the phone.”
“About what?”
May you like
Evelyn looked at Sarah.
“She said if Diane talked, Henry should make sure she never reached the bank.”
