Chapter 3 - Emily's words struck harder than the storm outside.“This isn't the first time?”
“No.”
“Explain.”
She looked at the door.
“Not here.”
I grabbed her arm.
“You don't get to say something like that and walk away.”
She flinched.
“Mr. Carter…”
“Who has been trying to hurt my son?”
“I don't know.”
“Then why do you sound like you do?”
Her eyes filled with fear.
Not guilt.
Fear.
“Because I recognized the symptoms.”
“From where?”
She looked down.
“My brother.”
Silence.
The paramedics continued stabilizing Noah.
His heartbeat was improving.
But I couldn't stop staring at Emily.
“What happened to your brother?”
“He died.”
“How?”
“Poison.”
“When?”
“Four years ago.”
“Who poisoned him?”
“I never found out.”
I studied her.
“You're telling me you've spent eight months working in my house because you thought my son would be poisoned?”
“No.”
She paused.
“I took this job because I thought you were being watched.”
The words made my skin crawl.
“By whom?”
“I didn't know.”
“You expect me to believe that?”
“No.”
She reached into her pocket.
This time she pulled out a photograph.
A young man.
Maybe twenty-five.
Dark hair.
Same eyes as Emily.
“He's my brother, Daniel.”
She pointed at the photograph.
“Three weeks before he died, he worked for a private security company.”
My eyes narrowed.
“What company?”
Emily said the name.
I knew it.
I had hired that company twice.
My pulse quickened.
“What did Daniel do?”
“He discovered something.”
“What?”
“He never told me.”
“Then how do you know it involved my family?”
“Because the last message he sent me had your name.”
My mouth went dry.
“My name?”
Emily nodded.
“Ethan Carter.”
Hearing my own name in that room felt obscene.
“What exactly did he write?”
Emily hesitated.
Then opened an old text message on her phone.
It was four years old.
A single sentence.
IF THEY EVER MENTION CARTER, RUN.
I stared at it.
“Why didn't you show me this before?”
“Because I didn't know whether you were involved.”
“With what?”
“Something called the Blue Room.”
I frowned.
“What's that?”
Emily looked toward the walls.
“That's what I'm trying to find out.”
Frank approached.
“Mr. Carter.”
“What?”
“I ran a preliminary scan on the camera.”
“And?”
“It wasn't transmitting to the internet.”
“Then where?”
Frank hesitated.
“Somewhere inside the mansion.”
My blood went cold.
“Meaning?”
“There is another receiver.”
We all looked around.
The nursery.
Emily whispered:
“There has to be a hidden room.”
My mansion had nearly sixty rooms.
I knew every hallway.
Every storage area.
Every wine cellar.
Every maintenance shaft.
I had bought the property nine years ago.
There was nothing called the Blue Room.
Frank's radio crackled.
“Sir.”
“What?”
“One of the exterior motion sensors just activated.”
“Where?”
“North garden.”
“How many people?”
“Unknown.”
Frank looked at the paramedics.
“Get the baby ready for transport.”
I shook my head.
“Not yet.”
The message had warned me not to take Noah to the hospital.
But keeping him here was also dangerous.
Emily stepped toward the window.
She stared into the rain.
“There.”
“What?”
“A light.”
I looked.
Nothing.
Then I saw it.
Across the lawn.
Between the trees.
A tiny flashlight.
Moving slowly.
Toward the house.
Frank raised his weapon.
“Everyone down.”
The guards spread out.
The flashlight disappeared.
Then the glass exploded.
Everyone ducked.
A bullet struck the wall above my head.
“Noah!”
I dove over the crib.
Emily threw herself beside me.
Another shot shattered a mirror.
Frank shouted commands.
Security returned fire through the windows.
The paramedics dragged Noah behind a reinforced cabinet.
Then silence.
Not normal silence.
The kind that comes after someone realizes they have missed.
Frank checked the windows.
“Shooter's gone.”
I looked at Emily.
She was still holding Noah's blanket.
Her face was pale.
She looked down.
And froze.
There was something printed on the blanket.
A symbol.
A blue circle.
With a vertical line through the center.
Emily's fingers began shaking.
“What?”
May you like
She whispered:
“The Blue Room.”
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