Chapter 12 - THE WOMAN IN THE WHITE DRESS
Charlotte reached the closing door.
The gap was less than two feet wide.
Bianca was kneeling beside Roland.
Blood spread across his shirt near his shoulder.
Conrad searched the shelves for another exit.
“There must be a release.”
Charlotte dropped to the floor and pushed her arm through the gap.
The external control was inches beyond her fingers.
The steel door continued closing.
Nora grabbed Charlotte’s legs.
“Pull back.”
Charlotte stretched farther.
Her fingertips touched the lever.
Conrad seized her ankle.
“Open it.”
“I am trying.”
The door pressed against Charlotte’s shoulder.
Bianca looked up from her father.
Her face was streaked with tears and soot.
She removed the diamond belt from her white gown.
Then she wrapped the metal clasp around the base of the closing door.
The mechanism ground against the diamonds.
The clasp bent.
The door stopped with a gap barely wide enough for one person.
Bianca crawled through.
“Where are you going?”
Charlotte tried to follow.
The belt began breaking.
Bianca looked back.
“You said no one ever asked what happened.”
She pushed Charlotte’s arm inside the vault.
“I am going to make them ask.”
The belt snapped.
The steel door sealed Bianca outside.
Roland shouted his daughter’s name.
Charlotte rushed to the internal panel.
It had gone dark.
Conrad struck the door with both fists.
“Adrian will kill her.”
Roland struggled to stand.
“You brought him into this.”
Conrad turned.
“You financed him.”
The two men began blaming each other while smoke seeped through the ventilation shafts.
Charlotte ignored them.
She searched the vault shelves.
Her grandfather had believed every secure room needed a mechanical escape.
Behind a painting of the original hotel, Charlotte found a narrow brass wheel.
She turned it.
Nothing happened.
Nora joined her.
Together, they forced the wheel through years of rust.
A hidden panel opened in the floor.
Fresh air rose from below.
Charlotte looked into the darkness.
An iron ladder descended into the old subway tunnels beneath the city.
They lowered Daniel first.
Roland followed with Nora’s help.
Conrad moved toward the ladder.
Charlotte blocked him.
“You first endangered hundreds of people.”
“You cannot leave me here.”
“You left my mother in a burning car.”
Conrad’s eyes widened.
Charlotte had guessed.
His expression confirmed it.
“You were there,” she whispered.
Conrad grabbed her shoulders.
“It was not supposed to happen that way.”
Charlotte heard the truth beneath his fear.
Before she could question him, a voice came through the vault intercom.
It was Bianca.
“I found the fire control room.”
A siren sounded.
Water thundered through the pipes.
The sprinkler system activated across the hotel.
Then Adrian’s voice came through the same speaker.
May you like
“You should not have come after me, Bianca.”
A gunshot followed.
