Chapter 9 - THE SECOND LOCK
"Anna," Adrian called out without looking back, his voice cold and precise as iron.
"Yes, Mr. Vance?" Anna answered instantly, standing up from the floor.
"Call the police. Tell them to send forensic units and emergency medical services to the estate immediately," Adrian instructed. "And tell the security guards at the front gate to lock the main gates. Nobody leaves this property."
"Yes, Sir," Anna said, turning and sprinting toward the suite’s internal house phone on the bedside table.
Bianca panicked. The realization that the police were being summoned broke her remaining restraint. She turned her back on Adrian and sprinted down the long marble hallway toward the grand staircase, her high heels clicking frantically against the floor as she attempted to reach the main foyer and her car.
Adrian didn't chase her. He knew the wrought-iron security gates at the end of the long mansion driveway were three inches of reinforced steel, electronically locked from the guardhouse.
Instead, he turned back to Evelyn, taking her frail, dust-covered face into his large hands, his tears finally falling freely down his cheeks as he kissed her forehead, her cold cheeks, and her hands.
"I'm sorry," Adrian wept, his heart breaking as he felt the thinness of her bones beneath her ruined dress. "I'm so sorry, Evelyn... I believed her... I spent three years hating you because I thought you left me..."
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Evelyn rested her cheek against his chest, listening to the steady, strong beat of his heart—the same sound she had listened to through the floorboards for three long, dark years while he paced the room above her head, mourning her loss.
"I heard you pacing every night, Adrian," Evelyn whispered, her tears washing small clean tracks through the dust on her face. "That was the only thing that kept me alive. Knowing you were still in the room."
