Chapter 14
The clock on the nursery wall ticked with a rhythmic, hypnotic sound as the small hand approached two in the morning. The room was bathed in the soft, blue-tinted glow of a nightlight shaped like a sleeping bear. Lily lay motionless in her white wooden crib, her breathing slow and even. Elena sat in the rocking chair beside the bed, wrapped in a heavy wool shawl, her eyes wide and sleepless in the dark. She had spent the last two hours listening to the faint sounds of Julian moving around in his study down the hall, the muffled clink of glass and the low murmur of phone calls confirming that the corporate merger was still on track despite the aborted wedding. He was untouchable. Or at least, he believed he was. But Elena had spent the midnight hours going through her old jewelry box in the closet—the one place Julian never thought to look because it contained items from before their marriage. At the bottom of the velvet tray, beneath a collection of vintage brooches from her grandmother, sat an old, encrypted satellite phone she had purchased years ago during her investigative journalism days in Europe before she met Julian. It had no SIM card, but it could connect to secure global frequencies through an encrypted satellite relay. She hadn't turned it on in three years. Her fingers hovered over the power button as she listened to make sure the hallway outside was completely quiet. She pressed and held the button. The tiny LED light blinked a faint amber, then flashed green as it established a connection to an orbital network far beyond Julian’s corporate reach. Her hands shook as she typed out a single, encrypted text message to the only person she knew who possessed the legal firepower and the personal animosity toward the Vance family to bring them down: an old colleague now working with federal investigative agencies in Washington. The message was short, precise, and impossible to trace: Vance Holdings. St. Jude Manor. Domestic abuse and corporate fraud. Evidence secured. Send help. She hit send, watched the screen flash TRANSMISSION COMPLETE, and immediately powered the device down, hiding it deep inside the lining of her winter coat hanging in the back of the closet. The trap was set. Now, all they had to do was survive until the cavalry arrived.
