Chapter 8 - The Sterling Heir’s Mistake
Jonathan claimed the champagne came from a sealed bottle.
Catherine asked who handed him the glass.
He looked toward a waiter standing near the floral arch.
The waiter was gone.
A silver serving tray remained on the floor.
Sarah ordered the security cameras reviewed.
Elias said the system had failed.
Sarah held up her encrypted phone.
“No. Your system is still recording. Someone only redirected the feed.”
Catherine admitted she created the redirection.
She had been monitoring the gala independently because she believed Elias planned to capture Sarah.
“Why invite Maya?”
“I didn’t.”
Adrian had.
He said he needed someone Elias would underestimate.
Sarah nearly struck him.
“You used my daughter as bait.”
“I thought she would remain in the ballroom.”
“You thought wrong.”
Jonathan interrupted.
He admitted following instructions delivered anonymously to his phone.
He was told Maya possessed evidence that could destroy the Sterling family.
He was instructed to keep her upstairs until Elias arrived.
He believed the champagne contained only a mild sedative.
The dosage was stronger than promised.
Maya could have stopped breathing.
Jonathan looked shaken for the first time.
Sarah felt no sympathy.
“You watched her collapse and still tried to remove her.”
“My father told me to contain it.”
“Your father is here?”
Jonathan glanced toward the locked side corridor.
Sarah followed the look.
A private elevator led to the estate’s underground archive.
The Sterling patriarch had not appeared among the guests.
But his son’s pin transmitted to someone below.
Catherine explained that the blinking pin was tied to an old Blackout emergency frequency.
Only three people could activate it.
Sarah.
Adrian.
And Daniel.
Daniel had been dead for fourteen years.
Unless the frequency had been copied.
Or Daniel had not died when Sarah believed he did.
Maya reached into the folds of her gown.
She removed a small metal key.
It matched the underground archive elevator.
Daniel’s final message had instructed her to bring it to the gala.
The second half of Blackout was beneath their feet.
May you like
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