Chapter 8 - The Fire Alarm.
Marcus held the phone away from his ear and stared at the screen.
Unknown Caller.
Celeste crossed the room in two steps.
"Give me that."
Marcus raised the phone.
"Lydia?"
The woman on the line breathed hard.
"You need to get out of that room."
Celeste's knees nearly buckled.
"Mom?"
Silence followed.
Then the voice changed.
"Celeste?"
The single word carried nine years of impossible grief.
Celeste took the phone from Marcus with shaking hands.
"You are alive."
Lydia began crying.
"Baby, listen to me."
"No."
Celeste's voice cracked.
"You don't get to call me baby."
"I can explain."
"I buried you."
"I know."
"I stood over your coffin."
"I know."
"Why?"
Lydia did not answer the question.
"Get Evelyn out of the hotel."
Celeste's face hardened.
"Why?"
"Because Thomas knows the founder's clause has been triggered."
Evelyn stepped closer.
"Put her on speaker."
Celeste did.
Evelyn spoke toward the phone.
"Lydia, what does Thomas want?"
The line became quiet.
"You sound like Margaret."
Evelyn swallowed.
"What does he want?"
"Control before midnight."
"He can't have it."
"He doesn't need permanent control."
Arthur interrupted.
"He only needs a clean transfer window."
Lydia recognized him immediately.
"Arthur."
"Hello, Lydia."
"You should have told Evelyn years ago."
"Margaret forbade it."
"Margaret is dead."
Evelyn closed her eyes.
"Stop talking around me."
Her voice trembled with fury.
"I am standing in a hidden room my mother built, holding a forged version of my father's will, while the woman everyone buried nine years ago warns me about a man who supposedly disappeared thirty years ago."
She looked at the phone.
"Someone tells me the truth now."
Lydia whispered.
"Thomas believes Celeste is entitled to half the Hart Legacy Trust."
Celeste stared at the phone.
Evelyn asked the obvious question.
"Why?"
A siren erupted through the hotel.
Red strobes began flashing in the hidden chamber.
Daniel looked upward.
"Fire alarm."
Lydia shouted through the speaker.
"That's him."
Smoke began slipping beneath the steel door.
Daniel's guards moved immediately.
"Everyone out."
Evelyn grabbed the valid will, her mother's letter, the photograph, and the ledger.
Daniel took the laptop.
Owen was pulled toward the stairs.
Celeste kept Marcus's phone pressed to her ear.
"Mom, where are you?"
"Don't worry about me."
"Tell me where you are."
"Celeste, run."
The call ended.
They climbed through the archive suite as smoke thickened in the corridor.
Guests were already evacuating toward emergency stairs.
Sprinklers had activated on the nineteenth floor, but Daniel stopped beside a wall panel.
"There is no fire here."
Marcus stared at him.
"Then why is there smoke?"
"Smoke canisters."
A security officer ran toward them.
"Two devices were found near the service elevator."
Evelyn understood.
The alarm was not meant to burn the hotel.
It was meant to empty it.
"The records."
She turned toward the archive room.
Daniel grabbed her arm.
"No."
"Somebody wants us out so they can destroy that room."
"And somebody may want you to run back inside."
The distinction stopped her.
Marcus looked down the corridor.
"Where is Calvin?"
Daniel checked his phone.
"Police units are heading to his apartment."
"He's not at home."
Evelyn looked at Marcus.
"How do you know?"
Marcus hesitated.
"Because he texted me ten minutes ago."
"You didn't mention that."
"There was a lot happening."
"What did he say?"
Marcus showed her the message.
Come to the penthouse alone if you want to save the company.
Evelyn stared at him.
"You were planning to go?"
"I was considering it."
"Alone?"
"He is my attorney."
Celeste laughed bitterly.
"Not anymore."
Marcus ignored her.
The elevator doors at the end of the corridor opened despite the fire alarm.
That should have been impossible.
A man in a black coat stepped out.
Calvin Pierce.
He was in his forties, polished, handsome, and usually so composed that Evelyn had once joked he looked incapable of sweating.
Tonight sweat darkened his collar.
He carried a leather document case.
Daniel stepped forward.
"Mr. Pierce, remain where you are."
Calvin stopped.
"I came to help."
Arthur's voice came through Evelyn's phone.
"You forged trust documents."
Calvin smiled faintly.
"Good evening, Arthur."
"You altered a codicil."
"I filed what my client provided."
Marcus stared at him.
"I provided nothing."
Calvin looked at Marcus for a long moment.
"Are you sure you want to say that in front of witnesses?"
Marcus's face tightened.
Evelyn saw it.
"What did you do?"
Marcus looked at her.
"Nothing illegal."
Calvin laughed.
"That is a matter of interpretation."
Daniel moved closer.
"Put the case on the floor."
Calvin did not obey.
"Inside this case is an original document signed by Evelyn's father."
Evelyn felt every muscle in her body lock.
"What document?"
Calvin looked directly at her.
"The document proving Thomas Rowan was not merely your mother's employee."
Celeste stared at him.
"What was he?"
Calvin's smile faded.
"He was the other beneficiary's father."
Evelyn frowned.
"Celeste is the other beneficiary."
Calvin shook his head.
"No."
He looked at Evelyn.
"You are."
Before anyone could speak, the fire alarm stopped.
Then every elevator door on the nineteenth floor opened at once.
May you like
Inside each empty elevator lay a white envelope.
Every envelope had Evelyn's name written across it.
