Chapter 8 - BENEATH THE BALLROOM
The explosion threw tables into the air.
Guests screamed as glass and stone rained across the ballroom.
A section of the dance floor collapsed.
Adrian fell against a marble pillar.
Victoria disappeared beneath a tablecloth.
Isabelle was knocked to her knees.
Smoke filled the room.
But the hotel did not collapse.
Caleb had opened the vault seconds before detonation.
The pressure escaped through the underground tunnel instead of destroying the entire foundation.
In the monitoring room, Evelyn held Lena behind the reinforced console.
The glass door shattered inward.
One masked man entered through the smoke.
Evelyn struck his wrist with the pistol.
The second man lunged at Lena.
Lena grabbed a fire extinguisher and sprayed him directly in the face.
He stumbled blindly.
Evelyn kicked the weapon from his hand.
The hotel employees arrived moments later.
They restrained both attackers with electrical cables.
Lena leaned against the wall.
“My baby is going to have a very strange birth story.”
Evelyn almost smiled.
Then the radio crackled.
Caleb’s voice did not come through.
Evelyn grabbed the flashlight.
“I am going to the vault.”
Lena caught her arm.
“The tunnel is filled with gas.”
“The system is reversing it.”
“You do not know whether Caleb is alive.”
“That is why I am going.”
Evelyn entered the passage.
The air burned her throat.
She covered her mouth and crawled forward.
Pieces of concrete blocked part of the tunnel.
She pushed through them.
At the vault entrance, she found Caleb lying beneath a steel beam.
Blood covered his shirt.
His eyes opened when she touched his shoulder.
“Did it work?”
“The hotel is standing.”
“The records?”
He pointed into the vault.
Rows of servers blinked behind damaged cabinets.
A steel case sat in the center.
Evelyn dragged the beam away from Caleb’s legs.
He cried out.
“We need to move.”
Caleb shook his head.
“Take the case.”
“I am not leaving you.”
“You cannot carry both.”
Evelyn looked toward the vault.
Then back at Caleb.
“I spent eighteen months hiding because people decided my life had less value than their money.”
“I will not make that decision about you.”
She took a rescue strap from the wall.
She secured it around Caleb’s body.
Then she pulled.
Every movement sent pain through her injured arm.
Caleb begged her to stop.
She did not.
Near the tunnel exit, Lena and two maintenance workers appeared.
Together, they pulled Caleb to safety.
A medic rushed toward him.
Evelyn carried the steel case into the monitoring room.
Inside were ledgers.
Hard drives.
Recorded calls.
And one sealed envelope addressed to her.
The handwriting belonged to her father.
Evelyn opened it.
May you like
The first line made her stop breathing.
EVELYN, ISABELLE IS NOT YOUR SISTER.
