Chapter 7 - Eleven Minutes of Darkness.
.The darkness lasted only seconds before emergency lights turned the hallway red.
Security immediately moved Helena and Adrian away from the windows.
Claire ordered everyone to remain inside the library.
From somewhere in the mansion came the sharp electronic chirp of an alarm panel being reset.
Adrian reached for Helena's hand.
She was trembling.
"This happened before," she whispered.
"When?"
"Whenever someone came to inspect the house."
Helena explained that Vivian sometimes killed power to the east wing for several minutes.
Afterward, a different set of folders would appear in the records room.
Claire realized the blackout might be designed to interrupt cameras or access controls.
She called the security team upstairs.
The response came quickly.
The east wing storage room had been opened during the outage.
One sealed evidence box was missing.
It contained the original contracts linked to Hartwell Domestic Services.
Adrian turned toward the door.
"Who had access?"
Only four people had been near the second floor.
Two security officers.
Vivian.
And Vivian's personal attorney, who had arrived just before the outage.
The attorney denied touching anything.
Vivian claimed she had remained in her suite.
Camera footage would have resolved the question, but the hallway cameras had stopped recording exactly thirty seconds before the power failed.
Claire's expression darkened.
"Someone planned this."
The backup generator restored normal lighting after eleven minutes.
A search began immediately.
The missing box was discovered in the conservatory fireplace.
The fire had not been lit.
The documents were still inside.
On top of them lay a pair of gloves belonging to one of Adrian's security officers.
The officer, Marcus Lee, stared at the gloves in disbelief.
"Those were in my car."
Vivian gave a small smile.
"How convenient."
Adrian understood the move at once.
Someone was trying to turn his own security team against itself.
Marcus asked to be searched and voluntarily handed over his phone.
Its location history showed that he had never gone near the conservatory.
Claire found another detail.
The fireplace grate carried a faint line of fresh dust except for one narrow clean mark.
Something had been dragged across it.
Behind the grate was a service passage used decades earlier by household staff.
The passage connected the conservatory to a stairwell beside Vivian's suite.
Helena knew the passage.
She had once been ordered to clean it after a plumbing repair.
They followed it carefully.
Halfway up the narrow staircase, Claire found a torn piece of black fabric caught on a nail.
Vivian's attorney was wearing navy.
Vivian wore a black silk robe over her dress from the night before.
When they returned to the library, Vivian had changed clothes.
The black robe was gone.
Claire asked where it was.
Vivian's eyes narrowed.
"I threw it away."
"Where?"
"I don't remember."
Helena looked toward Adrian.
For the first time since he found her, there was something other than fear in her expression.
It was recognition.
"She's going to blame everyone one at a time," Helena said.
Vivian laughed softly.
"You really think you understand me now?"
Helena stood straighter.
"I understand that you panic when you lose control."
Vivian's smile vanished.
Then Adrian's phone rang.
It was his financial director again.
Someone had just tried to authorize a massive transfer using Adrian's biometric approval from a device registered to his office.
Adrian was standing in the mansion.
His office was forty miles away.
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And according to the building log, one person had entered it ten minutes earlier.
Adrian's younger brother, Nathan.
