CHAPTER FIVE: Beneath the mask
428 Words
The police were already there when Adrian’s Rolls-Royce pulled up outside RoseBloom Boutique. Red-and-blue lights reflected off the shop’s glass windows, the once-inviting space now cloaked in chaos. The door was shattered, the front display torn apart like a message written in destruction.
Savannah pushed past the tape.
"Lily!"
She found her inside, sitting on the floor behind the cashier’s counter, wrapped in a blanket, her eyes wide and watery. A paramedic checked her vitals. A detective, short and stocky, stood nearby, scribbling into a notebook.
“Sav,” Lily whispered.
Savannah knelt, gathering her in a hug. “I’m here. What happened?”
“I stayed late to restock the shelves. I heard a noise—someone was in the back, going through the office. I tried to sneak out the front, but they cut the lights.”
They tore through the apartment. And then Savannah found it. A porcelain ballerina on the window ledge. Hollow.
Inside
A flash drive.
They plugged it into Marco’s encrypted laptop on the spot.
Files. Audio recordings. Photos.
One image showed Marcus and another man—Savannah didn’t recognize him—in what looked like a casino office. Money exchanged. A contract was signed.
Adrian leaned in. “That’s Dominic Laskin. He’s no CEO. He runs a shell company tied to underground laundering.”
“Why would Marcus work with him?”
Adrian’s eyes hardened. “Because he’s planning something. Something big.”
And then they heard the audio.
Marcus’s voice: “Savannah’s just leverage. Once the engagement is real, we’ll leak the affair story. Wreck Adrian’s image. I’ll take over the merger and the media rights.”
Dominic: “What about the girl?”
Marcus: “She’ll recover. Eventually.”
Savannah’s breath left her.
Adrian slammed the laptop shut.
“He’s been playing all of us.”
---
They returned to the penthouse in silence.
Savannah stared at her reflection.
Everything she’d feared—true.
She’d been bait.
But no longer.
---
Later that night, Savannah slipped away to the rooftop. The air was cold. Her breath ghosted.
Adrian joined her.
He handed her a glass of wine. “I’m sorry.”
She looked out over the city. “This isn’t your fault. But it’s now our fight.”
He leaned closer. “You’re not alone.”
Their fingers brushed.
Then
Her phone buzzed.
New Message: Unknown Number.
She opened it.
A video.
Lily. Bound to a chair. A gag in her mouth.
A voice, distorted and mechanical.
“Back off. Or she dies.”
The screen cut to black.
- Writer
