Chapter 6 - THE HOUSE LOCKS DOWN
Every exterior door clicked at once.
Ethan turned toward the security panel.
“You really should read the systems contracts you sign.”
“You control my house?”
“I control the company that installed the software.”
Vanessa whispered, “Graham, don’t.”
“You disappoint me.”
“She has nothing to do with this,” Ethan said.
“She has everything to do with it.”
Steel shutters started dropping over the downstairs windows.
Sophie screamed upstairs.
“Don’t.”
The man he had known for fifteen years held it like he had used one before.
“Where is she?”
“Who?”
Graham’s eyes turned flat.
“Claire.”
Vanessa stepped forward.
“She isn’t here.”
He struck her across the face.
She fell into the island.
The gun swung toward him.
“Stay there.”
Vanessa touched her split lip.
“You said you’d never come here.”
“You said you had control.”
“I did.”
“Until he came home early.”
Ethan said, “You faked Claire’s death.”
“Yes.”
The simplicity of it hit harder than any lie.
“Why?”
“Because she found something.”
“You could have come to me.”
“You would’ve done what you always do. Tried to fix it.”
“And?”
“And forty million dollars doesn’t get fixed.”
“You stole from our company.”
“I built that company.”
“We built it.”
“No. You were the face. I was the adult.”
Fifteen years of resentment in one sentence.
Graham pointed upstairs.
“Bring Claire down.”
“No.”
“Then I bring Sophie down first.”
Vanessa said, “Don’t use the child.”
“You did.”
He walked toward the stairs.
The gun pressed into Ethan’s chest.
“Move.”
“No.”
Graham’s finger tightened.
Then the lights went out.
Vanessa grabbed Ethan’s sleeve.
“Now.”
A gunshot cracked behind them.
Wood splintered off the staircase.
Ethan climbed two steps at a time.
Vanessa shouted, “Office!”
They reached the hallway.
The hidden door stood open.
Claire had Sophie in one hand.
And a small black drive in the other.
“What is that?” Ethan asked.
Claire’s face was white.
“The reason Graham kept me alive.”
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Below them, Graham shouted:
“You bring me that drive, or I burn the house with all of you inside.”
