Chapter 6 - The Intruder In The Rain
Emma froze, the forged document slipping from her fingers to land softly on the thick carpet. The flashing red light on the security panel cast an eerie crimson glow across the bedroom walls. Someone was on the property. Not a random burglar—the perimeter gate required a security override code, or a physical key that only she and Julian possessed.
She slipped quietly off the velvet bench, moving with deliberate, cat-like silence toward the master bathroom where a heavy brass-handled window offered a secondary exit to the side yard. Her mind raced. If Julian was sitting in the back of a federal cruiser downtown, who had just stepped onto their driveway in the middle of a torrential downpour?
A soft crunch of gravel echoed from outside the bedroom window, followed by the muffled sound of footsteps on the wooden deck. Someone was trying the sliding glass door that led directly from the patio into their private sitting room.
Emma slipped out of the closet and crept down the short hallway into the darkened sitting room. Through the rain-streaked glass of the patio door, a tall silhouette stood framed against the porch light. The figure was wearing a heavy trench coat with the collar turned up high, obscuring their face, but the broad shoulders and posture were unmistakably familiar.
It wasn't Julian. It was Marcus Vance’s junior associate, David, the man who had supposedly been sitting in the downtown office drafting the final asset freeze motions three hours ago.
David raised a gloved hand and tapped twice sharply against the glass, ignoring the locked handle entirely, as if he expected someone inside to be waiting for him.
Emma’s hand hovered over the heavy brass lamp on the side table, ready to use it as a weapon if the glass shattered. But instead of forcing his way in, David pulled a burner phone from his pocket, pressed it against the glass pane, and held up the screen.
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On the glowing screen, a single text message was displayed in bold text: Open the door, Emma. Julian didn't forge that paper alone. I have the rest of your family's history right here in this coat.
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