Chapter 13 - The Chandelier Witness.
The cradle stopped one floor above the skylight.
Its emergency brake locked with a metallic crack.
Rowan climbed over the rail onto a narrow maintenance beam.
Rain made the steel slick beneath her white sneakers.
Elise begged her to wait for the police.
“The police took my reports and gave them to Daniel,” Rowan said.
“Waiting is how people like Gideon turn evidence into smoke.”
Vivian removed her gold necklace.
She tied it around the jammed brake lever and pulled until the mechanism released.
The cradle descended the final distance.
They entered through a skylight service hatch above the lobby.
Below them, Daniel stood on a ladder beside the half-lowered chandelier.
Gideon held a metal case ready to receive the will.
Most staff had been pushed into the ballroom.
Reporters remained outside behind police barriers.
Vivian pointed toward a lighting console on the upper catwalk.
“The chandelier has an internal camera.”
Elise stared at her.
“You told me Conrad removed it.”
“I told everyone that.”
Vivian admitted she had used the hidden camera for years to watch donors, directors, and rivals crossing the lobby.
She had blackmailed two board members with what it captured.
The recordings were mirrored to an independent transmitter inside the fixture.
“Then it saw Marcus drag me from the salon in 2001,” Elise said.
Vivian lowered her eyes.
“It saw everything.”
Rowan felt a new wave of fury.
“You had proof that could have freed Thomas Wright.”
“Yes.”
The honesty was uglier than another lie.
Vivian entered the transmitter code.
The lobby screens came alive with archived footage.
The date in the corner read October 14, 2001.
A young Marcus carried an unconscious Elise through the lobby after the staged crash.
Thomas Wright followed, soaked from the river, holding infant Rowan beneath his coat.
Vivian appeared near the circular logo and ordered Daniel to call the police.
“Tell them Thomas kidnapped the baby and tried to kill Elise,” her younger voice said.
Employees emerging from the ballroom stopped beneath the screens.
Outside, reporters filmed through the glass.
Vivian switched the feed to the present and spoke into the console microphone.
“My name is Vivian Blackwood.”
Her confession rolled through every lobby speaker.
“I stole from the Aurelia pension fund.”
“I framed Thomas Wright.”
“Tonight, I assaulted Rowan Hale because I knew she could expose me.”
Gideon shouted for Daniel to cut the power.
Daniel climbed higher and opened the chandelier's central housing.
Rowan ran along the catwalk and leaped onto the maintenance ladder.
Gideon climbed after her.
Daniel found a metal cylinder inside the chandelier.
Rowan grabbed his wrist before he could throw it down.
The ladder swayed above the marble.
Gideon pulled Rowan backward by her bomber jacket.
The collar tightened against her throat just as Vivian's hand had tightened it earlier.
Rowan released Daniel and drove her heel into Gideon's knee.
The founder's key fell from her sleeve.
It dropped through the chandelier crystals and struck the circular logo below.
The inlaid marble sun split along a hidden seam.
A steel compartment rose from the floor.
Daniel lost his grip on the cylinder.
It landed inside the velvet-lined compartment before the steel lid locked over it.
Evan entered the lobby with police officers and rooftop paramedics behind him.
He pulled Gideon from the ladder.
Daniel tried to flee, but hotel employees blocked every exit.
Rowan descended.
She recovered the founder's key from the logo and used it to release the compartment.
The same key unlocked the metal cylinder.
Rowan opened the cylinder.
Inside was Conrad Blackwood's original will.
Miriam broke the seal before the cameras.
The first page confirmed Rowan as the controlling heir.
The second page contained a condition no one expected.
Rowan could own the Aurelia only if the people who worked there chose to let her stay.
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THE WOMAN BENEATH THE CHANDELIERS
