Chapter 3 - THE ROOM WITHOUT CAMERAS
Charlotte was taken through the service corridor behind the lobby.
The corridor smelled of detergent, coffee, and hot metal from the laundry room below.
Mason Reed walked beside her.
Two guards followed several steps behind.
Charlotte kept her voice low.
“Adrian disabled Camera Seventeen.”
Mason did not look at her.
“I know.”
Charlotte studied his profile.
“Then why are you following his orders?”
“Because he believes I still work for him.”
Mason opened a gray security door and guided Charlotte inside.
The room contained a metal table, two chairs, and no visible cameras.
Charlotte remained standing.
“Are you helping me?”
“I have not decided.”
Mason closed the door.
“Three years ago, I was hired by your mother to investigate missing funds.”
Charlotte’s anger softened into surprise.
“My mother hired you?”
“She believed someone was moving money through hotel renovation contracts.”
Mason leaned against the table.
“Before I could finish, she died.”
“My mother’s brakes failed.”
“That is what the police report says.”
“You do not believe it?”
Mason reached into his jacket.
He placed a small evidence bag on the table.
Inside was a corroded piece of metal.
“This came from your mother’s car.”
Charlotte stared at it.
“The brake line was cut before corrosion chemicals were poured over it.”
Her throat tightened.
“Who did it?”
“I traced the payment to a shell company registered through Laurent Capital.”
Bianca’s father’s bank.
Charlotte thought of the flash drive hidden in Bianca’s hand.
“Bianca may not know what her father is involved in.”
“She knows enough to be dangerous.”
Mason moved toward the door.
“Adrian will come for you soon.”
Charlotte caught his arm.
“The drive Bianca took is not the only copy.”
Mason turned.
Charlotte pulled a tiny memory card from beneath the bandage around her palm.
“I copied the archive ledger before they found me.”
Mason almost smiled.
“Your mother said you never trusted a single hiding place.”
A crash sounded in the corridor.
Then Elias shouted.
The door opened.
Adrian entered with Bianca and four additional guards.
Bianca held the black flash drive.
Her confidence had returned.
“She stole this from the executive records room.”
Adrian placed both hands on the table.
“Tell me who sent you.”
Charlotte sat down.
“No one sent me.”
“You were declared legally deceased eighteen months ago.”
The words struck harder than Bianca’s hand.
Charlotte looked at Mason.
Mason’s expression revealed he had not known.
Adrian slid a document across the table.
It was a court-issued death certificate.
The name printed across the top was Charlotte Eleanor Vale.
Cause of death was listed as an accidental drowning off the coast of Portugal.
Charlotte remembered the boat fire.
She remembered the men who had chased her through the smoke.
She had believed they were trying to frighten her away from the company.
Now she understood their true intention.
They had not merely wanted her gone.
They had rewritten the world so she had never survived.
Bianca stared at Charlotte.
May you like
Then she whispered to Adrian.
“You promised me she was dead.”
