Chapter 2 - THE BASEMENT AT 11:17
The burner phone slipped from Nathaniel’s fingers and clattered against the marble.
The sound echoed through the massive foyer like a gunshot.
Victoria lunged for it.
Nathaniel was faster. He planted his leather shoe squarely over the device, his eyes never leaving his fiancée’s face. The polite, exhausted billionaire who had walked through the front doors two minutes ago was gone. In his place stood a man who suddenly realized he was sleeping next to a viper.
"Nathaniel, please," Victoria stammered, her voice trembling. "That message means nothing. It's a prank. A sick joke."
"A joke?" Nathaniel’s voice was dangerously quiet. "My mother’s murder is a joke to you?"
He looked at Grace.
She was still kneeling by the bucket, her hands clutching her wet apron.
"Grace," he said. "Three weeks ago. You opened a drawer. Tell me what you saw."
Victoria snapped her head toward the housekeeper. "If you say one word, I swear to God—"
"Shut up, Victoria," Nathaniel commanded. The authority in his voice froze her in place. He knelt so he was at eye level with Grace. "You said you saw your name in that file. Why?"
Grace swallowed the lump in her throat. She was terrified. But she was more terrified of what Victoria would do to her son if this was swept under the rug.
"My mother was Evelyn Bennett," Grace whispered. "She was the head housekeeper here twenty-one years ago. The night your mother died in that 'car accident,' my mother disappeared. The police said she ran away. But in Victoria's drawer... there was a police report. A fake one. And a note that said 'The Bennett loose end is handled. The daughter, Grace, knows nothing.'"
Nathaniel's face turned to stone.
His mother hadn't died in a crash. Grace’s mother hadn’t abandoned her.
They were both in the basement at 11:17.
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He grabbed Victoria by the arm, dragging her toward the heavy oak doors of his study. She kicked and screamed, the mask of the perfect socialite entirely shredded. He shoved her inside and locked the deadbolt from the outside.
"Grace," Nathaniel said, turning back to her. "We are going to the basement."
