Chapter 4 - The Midnight Shadows
The cold inside the stone vault was immediate and suffocating. Elena wrapped her arms around her chest, her breath turning into white plumes of vapor in the absolute darkness. She pounded on the door until her knuckles bled, but the walls were two feet of reinforced concrete. No one could hear her.
Hours ticked by. The freezing temperature began to numb her fingers and toes. Elena sank to the floor, clutching her palm—the star-shaped birthmark burning with cold. She refused to close her eyes. She had survived an orphanage, survived years of thankless labor, and she refused to die in the dark just to let Catherine keep her stolen millions.
Meanwhile, upstairs, Noah was pacing his bedroom.
Something felt entirely wrong. His father had been gone for hours, Mason was missing from his room, and when Noah went to check on Elena, her suite was completely empty. He had asked Harrison where she was, and the estate manager had nervously claimed she took a taxi to visit a friend in the city.
But Noah knew Elena. She wouldn't leave without saying goodbye to him.
Determined to find the truth, Noah sneaked into the security monitoring room while the guard was on a bathroom break. He fast-forwarded the security tapes from the hallway. His blood ran cold when he saw footage from three hours prior: Harrison leading Elena down to the west wing cellars... and ten minutes later, Harrison and Catherine walking back up alone, Catherine smiling.
"Oh my god," Noah gasped, his hands shaking as he grabbed a heavy flashlight from the security desk.
He sprinted out of the room, running down the grand staircase and tearing through the mansion toward the dark, forgotten corridors of the basement. The storm outside was howling, thunder shaking the very foundations of the house as Noah descended into the damp wine cellars.
"Elena!" he shouted, his voice echoing off the stone walls. "Elena, are you down here?!"
Inside the vault, Elena’s eyelids were growing heavy, the early stages of hypothermia taking hold. Through the thick iron door, a faint, distant sound reached her ears. A voice calling her name.
"Noah..." she croaked, her throat dry and frozen. She gathered every ounce of strength she had left, grabbed a discarded glass bottle from the floor, and smashed it violently against the iron door. CLANG! CLANG! CLANG!
Noah froze. He followed the metallic ringing sound, sprinting past the rows of wine racks until his flashlight beam illuminated the heavy iron vault door.
"Elena! Are you in there?" Noah yelled, throwing his weight against the door.
"Noah... it’s locked... the key... Catherine has the key..." her voice was weak, barely a whisper.
"I'll get you out, I swear!" Noah yelled. He looked around frantically. The lock was a heavy, old-fashioned deadbolt. He didn't have the key, but he knew exactly where the estate’s emergency master keys were kept—in the safe inside his mother’s dressing room upstairs.
Noah sprinted back up the stairs, his heart pounding in his chest. He burst into his mother’s master suite. The lights were on. Catherine was sitting at her vanity, calmly brushing her hair, while Mason stood by the window sipping a glass of scotch.
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They both spun around as Noah slammed the door open, his face flushed with sweat and absolute rage.
"Give me the master key, Mother," Noah demanded, his voice shaking with fury. "Now."
