Chapter 4 - THE WOMAN IN THE CELLAR
Lucas pushed Lily behind a stone column.
“Stay down.”
Guests ran toward the exits as another sound echoed from the east wing.
Not a second gunshot.
A door slamming.
Lucas grabbed the nearest security guard.
“Call the police. Keep everyone away from my daughter.”
He followed the sound through the dark kitchen and down a service corridor.
At the end stood a steel door leading to the wine cellar.
It was supposed to be locked.
Now it hung open.
“Vanessa?”
No answer.
Lucas descended the narrow stairs.
Broken wine bottles covered the floor.
A shadow moved behind a storage rack.
Lucas grabbed a heavy wooden tray.
“Come out.”
A woman stumbled into the light.
She was around sixty, with gray hair and blood running from a cut above her eyebrow.
Lucas recognized her.
“Maria?”
Maria Alvarez had worked as Rachel’s housekeeper for almost eight years.
She had disappeared one week after Rachel’s funeral.
Vanessa claimed Maria had stolen jewelry and fled the country.
Maria stared at Lucas as if she were seeing a ghost.
“Thank God.”
“What are you doing here?”
“Hiding.”
“From whom?”
She looked toward the stairs.
“Your bride.”
Lucas helped her sit.
“What happened?”
“I came tonight because I heard about the wedding. I had to stop you.”
“Why didn’t you call me?”
“I did. Vanessa answered your phone. After that, men began watching my apartment.”
Lucas’s stomach tightened.
“Did Vanessa shoot at you?”
“No. Diane did.”
“Why?”
“Because I know how Rachel died.”
Footsteps sounded above them.
Lucas pulled Maria behind the wine rack.
Diane descended into the cellar, holding a small handgun.
Her silver dress was torn at the shoulder.
“Maria,” she called. “You should’ve stayed in Mexico.”
Lucas stepped from the shadows.
Diane raised the weapon.
For one terrible second, it pointed directly at his chest.
Then Vanessa appeared behind her.
“Mom, put it down.”
Diane kept the weapon raised.
“He knows too much.”
“He’s worth more alive.”
Lucas felt sick.
Worth more?
Vanessa moved closer.
“You were supposed to marry me, Lucas. You were supposed to sign the trust amendment tomorrow. After that, none of this would’ve mattered.”
“The trust amendment?”
“Your company, the mansion, the insurance accounts—it would all become marital property.”
“That isn’t how the agreement works.”
Vanessa smiled.
“The agreement your lawyer prepared? No. But that isn’t the document waiting for your signature.”
Sirens wailed in the distance.
Diane turned toward the stairs.
Maria lunged from behind the rack and struck Diane’s wrist with a bottle.
The gun fired into the ceiling.
Lucas tackled Diane.
Vanessa ran.
By the time Lucas wrestled the weapon away, she had disappeared through a cellar passage he never knew existed.
Maria gripped his arm.
“Let her go.”
“She threatened Lily.”
“She didn’t just threaten her.”
May you like
Maria’s face crumpled.
“Vanessa is the reason Rachel died. But Rachel wasn’t her first victim.”
