Chapter 2 - THE CALL FROM THE DEAD
The phone remained pressed against Olivia’s ear long after the call ended.
“Olivia?” Sebastian’s hand hovered near her shoulder. “Tell me what he said.”
She looked past him at Richard Sterling. The older attorney had gone perfectly still, his face pale beneath the warm chandelier light. Vanessa stood beside the dining table, one hand gripping its edge as if the floor had begun to tilt.
“He said his name was Daddy,” Olivia whispered.
A guest dropped a fork. The small metallic sound seemed impossibly loud.
Sebastian moved between Olivia and the room. “Everyone leaves. Now.”
Nobody argued. Marco, his security chief, began escorting the guests through the side doors. Sebastian ordered the house staff to lock the gates and preserve every camera recording from the last hour. Within minutes, the ballroom emptied, leaving Olivia, Sebastian, Vanessa, Richard, and two guards beneath the glittering chandeliers.
“Give me the phone,” Richard said.
Olivia pulled it against her chest. “Why?”
“Because whoever called you is dangerous.”
“You looked more frightened than I did.”
Richard’s mouth tightened. “You don’t understand the kind of people who might use your grief against you.”
“Then explain them.”
Sebastian studied the old attorney. “You said Adrian was dead.”
“I said he disappeared.”
“You told my father there was no chance he’d return.”
Richard’s eyes flickered toward Vanessa. “I was trying to protect this family.”
“Everyone keeps saying that,” Sebastian replied. “Yet every person you claim to protect ends up frightened, silenced, or dead.”
Olivia’s fingers found the silver pendant at her throat. The thought of her father’s voice made her chest ache. For twenty-two years she had believed he’d walked away from her and her mother. Now he’d called her sweetheart as though no time had passed.
“He said there’s something hidden inside the necklace,” she said. “And he said Richard would do to me what he did to my mother.”
Vanessa shook her head quickly. “That’s absurd. Richard is a respected attorney.”
“Respected men can still be monsters,” Sebastian said.
Richard straightened. “I will not be interrogated in a dining room by a man who has spent his adult life intimidating people.”
“And I won’t let you leave until I know why a missing man called Olivia and warned her about you.”
Richard looked toward the guards. “You can’t hold me here.”
“No,” Sebastian said. “But I can ask you to stay while we contact the police. If you’re innocent, you should welcome an investigation.”
The attorney’s confidence faltered.
Marco returned with a tablet. “Boss, we have the incoming call. It routed through three disposable numbers, but the last signal bounced off a tower near the old Romano boathouse.”
Sebastian’s face changed. The boathouse sat on private land north of the city, abandoned after Adrian’s disappearance. The family had been told it was unsafe and sealed it off.
“Get a team there,” he said. “Quietly. Nobody enters alone.”
Olivia caught his sleeve. “I’m coming.”
“No.”
“He called me.”
“And someone may be waiting for you.”
“He’s my father.”
Sebastian’s expression softened for a heartbeat. “That’s exactly why you’re staying somewhere safe.”
“I’ve spent my whole life being told what I’m allowed to know. My mother died with secrets. I’m not letting another man decide what I can handle.”
He looked at her for a long moment. Then he nodded. “You stay beside me. If I tell you to get down, you get down. No arguments.”
Richard gave a bitter laugh. “You’re making a terrible mistake, Sebastian. That girl has been placed here for a reason.”
Olivia turned on him. “You said that like you know the reason.”
The attorney’s silence answered more clearly than words.
Before Sebastian could question him, the lights went out.
A crash came from the corridor. One guard shouted. A gunshot cracked through the mansion.
Sebastian pulled Olivia behind the heavy dining table and covered her with his body. Glass shattered somewhere above them. When the emergency lights flickered on, Richard was gone.
Marco rushed in, breathing hard. “The east gate’s open. Someone hit the guard and took a vehicle.”
“Richard?” Sebastian demanded.
Marco nodded.
On the floor beneath the empty chair lay a small brass key and a folded note. Sebastian opened it under the emergency light.
The message contained only one sentence:
If you want Adrian alive, bring the necklace to the boathouse before midnight.
May you like
Olivia touched the pendant.
For the first time, she wondered whether her father had truly called her—or whether someone had learned exactly how to imitate the voice she’d dreamed of hearing all her life.
