Chapter 7 - Flight Through the Manor
My lungs burned as I tore down the grand hallway, my sneakers pounding frantically against the polished oak floors. Behind me, Marcus’s furious bellow echoed through the cavernous estate, followed instantly by Victoria’s high-pitched, hysterical laughter—a horrifying sound that bounced off the crystal chandeliers and high vaulted ceilings like glass breaking.
Run. Just keep running.
My mind screamed the words on an endless loop. I couldn't go back upstairs to the nursery; Leo was still sleeping in his crib there, but if I went back for him now, Marcus would cut off my exit completely. My only chance of survival was to get outside, reach the front gates, and flag down a passing car on the main highway.
I veered hard to the left, racing past the sweeping staircase and heading toward the massive double doors of the front foyer. The heavy brass handles were just twenty feet away, gleaming mockingly in the late afternoon light filtering through the stained-glass transom.
I stretched out my hand, my fingers flying forward to grab the latch—
Click.
The deadbolt threw itself home with a heavy, mechanical snap from inside the door mechanism.
I slammed hard against the solid oak panels, my hands grasping frantically at the unmoving brass handle. I jiggled it, threw my weight against the wood, and screamed in frustration. It was locked from the outside—or electronically controlled from a security panel.
"Looking for a way out, Elena?"
The calm, controlled voice chilled me straight to the bone. I spun around, pressing my back flat against the locked front doors.
Marcus was walking down the hallway from the library, his stride unhurried, his hands tucked casually into his trouser pockets as if we were taking a leisurely stroll through a park. But his eyes were dead, fixed on me with the terrifying focus of a hunter closing in on a wounded deer. Victoria was nowhere in sight, her hysterical laughter having faded into a sinister, echoing silence somewhere in the west wing.
"You can't lock me in here, Mr. Vance," I panted, my voice shaking as I raised my hands defensively, keeping my right hand buried deep in my jacket pocket, gripping the USB drive like a talisman. "People know I'm here. My parents know I'm working at this estate today. The moment I don't text them by six o'clock, they're calling the police!"
Marcus stopped ten feet away, letting out a low, patronizing sigh. "Elena, let's be entirely realistic for a moment. You're a college student from a working-class family across town. Your parents think you're at a campus library study group until late tonight. Nobody knows you're at the Vance estate on a Sunday afternoon except Victoria and me—and Victoria's word has precisely zero credibility in a court of law, as you witnessed firsthand."
He took another slow step forward, his shadow swallowing me whole.
"Now," Marcus continued smoothly, "be a sensible girl, take that flash drive out of your pocket, and hand it over to me. If you cooperate right now, I might let you walk out those front doors with your tuition money in your pocket and a very strict NDA to sign. Resist me, and well... let's just say history has an unfortunate habit of repeating itself."
My heart hammered against my ribs so hard I thought my chest wall would crack. I looked from Marcus to the locked front doors, then back down the dark hallway leading toward the kitchens and the servants' exit at the rear of the mansion.
I didn't have a choice.
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With a sudden burst of adrenaline, I feigned a lunge to the right, drawing Marcus's eye for a split second, and then bolted hard to the left, diving down the narrow, dimly lit corridor that led toward the back of the estate.
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