Chapter 13 - A Frantic Summons
Maria looked frantically around the empty hallway. She needed the golden skeleton key, a master key that was usually kept in the security office or on the person of the estate owner.
Her first instinct was to use her radio to call the private security team. But Maria was a woman of sharp intuition. She recognized the boy; she had seen him arriving with one of Adrian Vance’s top board members. For a VIP guest's child to be locked inside the highly restricted, climate-controlled solarium—a room that required a physical key to lock from the outside—meant this was not an accident. Someone had deliberately trapped him here.
If she called security, the radio chatter would alert everyone on the staff, potentially including the person who had locked the boy away. She needed someone with absolute authority, someone who could bypass protocol and demand answers. She needed the master of the house.
"I'll be right back! Stay strong!" Maria mouthed exaggeratedly to Leo, pointing firmly toward the main house.
May you like
Leo nodded through his tears, pressing his hands against the glass in a desperate plea for her not to leave him.
Maria hiked up her black uniform skirt and ran. She sprinted down the carpeted hallway faster than she had moved in years, abandoning all decorum. She bypassed the service stairs and took the grand spiral staircase two steps at a time, her mind racing. She didn't care that the wedding was minutes away. A child’s safety superseded any ceremony. She burst through the heavy double doors leading to the antechamber of the grand ballroom, panting heavily, searching the sea of suits for the groom.
