Chapter 2
The rhythmic blinking of the blue lights cast erratic shadows across the white marble floor.
Victoria swallowed hard, forcing her vocal cords to function despite the sudden ice in her veins.
"You are trespassing," Victoria whispered, her voice losing its previous sharp edge.
"Security will be here in ten seconds."
The old woman, whose name tag remained blank and unpinned, offered a grim, humorless smile.
"Security cannot hear what the deep has swallowed," she replied calmly.
"Your father, Admiral Sterling, told the world he lost his crew to a mechanical failure."
She gestured toward the glowing gown with a scarred hand.
"He lied.
He locked the aft compartment himself to protect his own skin and his billionaire investors."
Victoria shook her head violently, her diamond earrings catching the light in chaotic flashes.
"That is a lie! My father was a decorated hero.
There is a wing at the naval hospital named after him."
"There is a mass grave at the bottom of the Mariana Trench named after him, too," the woman countered.
She reached out again, her glowing blue eyes fixed on Victoria with terrifying intensity.
"My daughter, Clara, was on that vessel as a civilian engineer.
She designed the very fiber-optic circuitry that makes your dress glow."
Victoria stepped away, her back pressing against the cold glass of a display case.
The blue lights on the dress began to hum audibly, emitting a low-frequency vibration that rattled the glass shelves.
"How do you even know about the circuitry?" Victoria demanded.
"That was classified military-industrial property."
"I am Martha," the old woman said, straightening her posture.
"Head baker of the naval base commissary, and the mother Clara called on the encrypted emergency line before the hatch sealed."
Martha pulled a small, rusted brass key from her apron pocket.
She held it up between two fingers.
It was identical to the key Victoria wore on a gold chain beneath her blazer.
Victoria’s hand instinctively flew to her chest, clutching the hidden pocket where her father’s heirloom key rested.
Martha smiled bitterly.
May you like
"You thought you were the only one holding the key to the Sterling legacy, didn’t you?"
Victoria stared at the brass key in Martha’s hand, realizing the foundation of her entire life was built on a submerged graveyard.
