Chapter 2 - THE CHILD BEHIND THE LOCKED DOOR:
“Seal the estate!”
Adrian’s command thundered through the ballroom.
Security officers rushed toward the exits.
Guests crowded together beneath the red emergency lights.
Some shouted.
Others began filming.
Adrian ignored them.
He searched beneath tables and behind curtains, calling Lily’s name.
The little girl had been standing beside him only seconds earlier.
Someone had used the darkness deliberately.
Someone had known exactly where she was.
Samuel Rhodes examined the ballroom doors.
“The main entrances were already secured.”
“Then she was taken through the service corridor,” Adrian said.
He ran toward the hallway Lily had pointed to earlier.
Two security guards followed.
The corridor led past the kitchens, storage rooms, and staff elevators.
A catering cart stood abandoned near a rear staircase.
One wheel was still turning.
Adrian pulled away the white tablecloth.
No one was underneath.
A cook appeared from the kitchen.
“A woman passed through here,” he said.
“She was wearing a Saint Catherine’s uniform.”
“Was she carrying a child?”
“I could not see.”
The cook pointed toward the basement stairs.
“She had a laundry hamper.”
Adrian took the stairs three at a time.
The basement smelled of stone, wine, and cleaning chemicals.
He heard a door slam somewhere ahead.
“Lily!”
A faint sound answered him.
Three soft knocks.
Adrian followed the sound to a locked linen room.
He struck the door with his shoulder.
It did not move.
A guard handed him a metal bar.
Adrian forced it between the frame and the lock.
Wood splintered.
The door flew open.
Lily was crouched behind a stack of folded tablecloths.
A strip of cloth had been tied around her mouth.
Her wrists were bound loosely with a silk scarf.
Adrian dropped beside her.
“You’re safe.”
He removed the gag and untied her hands.
Lily threw her arms around his neck.
“She wanted the hairpin.”
“Who?”
“The woman from the home.”
“Did she hurt you?”
Lily shook her head.
“She said she did not want to.”
Adrian noticed an open ventilation grate near the floor.
The woman had escaped through an old maintenance passage.
“Did she take anything?”
Lily reached into her sock.
She pulled out the second silver hairpin.
“I hid it.”
Despite his fear, Adrian almost smiled.
“That was very brave.”
“She took the one from my pocket.”
“The third one?”
Lily nodded.
“She said Mr. Crowe would hurt her son if she did not bring it.”
Adrian lifted Lily into his arms.
“You did nothing wrong.”
“Is Mr. Crowe a bad man?”
Adrian looked toward the open ventilation shaft.
“He is a man with many secrets.”
When they returned upstairs, the ballroom had become a crime scene.
Police officers had arrived.
Victoria sat inside the library with Charles and two members of Adrian’s security team.
Her face was pale.
Her father’s name had destroyed her confidence.
Adrian carried Lily into a quiet sitting room.
A female doctor examined her.
Apart from a small bruise on her wrist, she was unharmed.
Adrian remained near the door.
Lily watched him carefully.
“Are you really my uncle?”
“I believe I am.”
“Why didn’t Mommy tell me about you?”
“I don’t know.”
“Did you make her sad?”
The question struck him harder than any accusation.
Adrian sat beside her.
“When your mother disappeared, we had argued.”
“About what?”
“She loved someone my family did not accept.”
“My daddy?”
“Yes.”
“What happened to him?”
Adrian did not want to lie.
“We do not know.”
Lily looked down at the remaining hairpin.
“Mommy said he was brave.”
“I believe he was.”
“She said brave people can still lose.”
Adrian studied her face.
“Did she tell you anything about Mr. Crowe?”
Lily shook her head.
“She only told me never to say her real name.”
“What name did she use?”
“Elise Hart.”
Adrian closed his eyes.
Eleanor had lived under a false identity.
She had survived the yacht explosion.
She had raised her daughter in hiding.
Yet six months earlier, Lily had been placed at Saint Catherine’s Home with documents claiming both parents were dead.
“How did your mother die?” he asked carefully.
“She got sick.”
“Were you with her?”
“No.”
Lily’s lower lip trembled.
“She went to work and never came home.”
A woman from social services had told Lily that her mother died in a hospital.
No body had been shown.
No funeral had been held.
Adrian felt hope rise inside him.
It was dangerous hope.
But it was hope.
Samuel entered with a small velvet box.
Inside were magnifying tools and an ultraviolet lamp.
He placed the hairpin beneath the light.
Lines appeared across the silver surface.
Tiny numbers.
Coordinates.
“This is not merely jewelry,” Samuel said.
“It is a cipher key.”
Adrian looked at Lily.
“Did your mother ever open it?”
“She twisted the flower part.”
Adrian gently rotated the decorative silver rose.
A section of metal slid aside.
Inside the hairpin was a tightly rolled strip of translucent film.
Samuel removed it with tweezers.
He held it against the light.
Several names had been written in microscopic letters.
Businessmen.
Judges.
Government officials.
At the top was Sebastian Crowe.
Beneath his name were two words.
Project Nightfall.
Samuel’s face changed.
“I heard that phrase once.”
“When?”
“The night your sister vanished.”
Before Adrian could question him, a guard entered.
“Mr. Vale, Victoria Ashbourne is asking to speak with you.”
“Has she decided to tell the truth?”
“She says she will speak only if you protect her from her father.”
Adrian returned to the library.
Victoria sat alone now.
Charles had been escorted to another room.
Her elegant appearance had collapsed.
Mascara stained the skin beneath her eyes.
Her hands shook.
“I never knew Eleanor had a child,” she said.
“But you knew she survived.”
Victoria nodded.
“My father told everyone she died.”
“Where was she?”
“I don’t know.”
Adrian placed the hairpin on the table.
“What is Project Nightfall?”
Victoria stared at it.
“It was supposed to protect the monarchy.”
“From what?”
“From the truth.”
Adrian leaned closer.
“What truth?”
Victoria swallowed.
“The royal family was never the target.”
She looked toward the locked door.
“Your sister discovered that my father was using the Valerian Relief Trust to finance private detention sites.”
Adrian felt his stomach turn.
“For whom?”
“For anyone who threatened him.”
“Journalists?”
“Politicians.”
“Eleanor?”
Victoria’s silence answered him.
Adrian fought the urge to drag Sebastian Crowe from his home with his own hands.
“Where are these sites?”
“The records were divided among three hairpins.”
“What does the stolen hairpin contain?”
Victoria whispered the answer.
“The location where Eleanor was taken.”
A crash came from the hallway.
The door opened.
A security officer stumbled inside.
Blood ran from a cut near his temple.
“Mr. Vale,” he gasped.
“Someone attacked the transport team.”
Adrian looked toward the empty chair where Charles Ashbourne had been sitting minutes earlier.
“Who did they take?”
The guard’s answer filled Victoria with terror.
“They took your husband.”
Victoria covered her mouth.
Then Adrian’s phone rang.
The caller ID showed a blocked number.
He answered.
An older man’s voice spoke calmly.
“Give me the remaining hairpin, Adrian.”
Adrian recognized Sebastian Crowe immediately.
“Where is Eleanor?”
A soft laugh traveled through the phone.
“You are asking the wrong question.”
“What question should I ask?”
Sebastian paused.
May you like
Then he delivered the message that would haunt Adrian through the night.
“You should ask why your sister chose to disappear from you”:
