Chapter 34: The Worthless Paper
Dawn brought no golden sunrise over Blackwood Crest, offering only a dull, sickly gray twilight that seeped through the howling blizzard. The coastal bluffs were buried beneath four feet of packed, wind-scoured drifts, turning the manicured avenues into a frozen expanse where street signs barely poked above the white crust. The wind shrieked through the ornamental eaves of the Sterling mansion, rattling the tall, ice-blinded sash windows until the wooden frames groaned under the relentless pressure.
Inside the grand drawing room, the air was bitter and stagnant, hanging at a lethal fifteen degrees below zero. Ice crawled three feet up the damask wallpaper from the baseboards, turning the delicate floral patterns into brittle, frosted needles that cracked w
