Chapter 6 - A Trap is Sprung
Victoria, desperate and facing prison time, decided to take a dangerous gamble. Using a rogue security guard she had bribed months ago, she obtained a bypass code to a side gate of the Hawthorne estate.
It was a rainy Tuesday evening. Richard was stuck at a late board meeting, leaving Emily and the boys alone with the internal security staff.
Emily was tucking Liam into bed when she heard a faint click from the hallway downstairs. The security monitors in the master bedroom usually hummed quietly, but one of the screens suddenly went black.
Instinct kicked in. Emily quietly locked Liam’s door from the inside, then did the same for Ethan and Noah’s connected room. "Stay under the bed, boys. Play the silent game, remember? Don't make a sound until I come get you."
She slipped out into the hallway through a secret service door, holding a heavy brass candleholder.
Downstairs, a figure in a raincoat was moving toward the office—it was Victoria, trying to steal the original hard drives containing the playroom audio recordings.
"Looking for these?" Emily's voice rang out in the darkness. She stood at the bottom of the stairs, holding her phone, which was live-streaming directly to Richard and the police network.
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Victoria spun around, her eyes wild. "You little rat! You ruined my life! I was going to be the queen of this empire!" She lunged at Emily with a pocket knife.
Emily stepped aside with practiced agility, striking Victoria’s wrist with the candleholder. The knife clattered to the floor. Before Victoria could recover, the front doors burst open, and Richard, flanked by four armed security guards and the police, rushed in.
