Chapter 2 - The Door That Stayed Closed
My mother stepped backward.
She kept the phone pointed toward her face, but I could see the apartment door reflected in the dark kitchen window behind her.
The handle moved again.
Then stopped.
“Police are on the way,” Vivian said.
I signed the words.
Mom looked directly into the camera.
Are you hurt?
Of course that was her first question.
Someone was trying her door, and she wanted to know whether I had eaten dinner and survived whatever trouble I had found.
I shook my head.
Safe. Stay away from the entrance.
Nicholas stood beside me, silent.
He didn’t promise that nothing would happen.
He didn’t tell me to calm down.
He watched Vivian coordinate with emergency dispatch, and when she asked for the building’s access information, he listened while I supplied it.
That steadiness gave me something to hold.
Mom moved into her bedroom and locked the door.
Two minutes later, her video doorbell sent an alert.
A man in a delivery jacket walked away carrying no package.
The camera caught his face.
Vivian asked me to preserve the clip.
Then blue light flashed across Mom’s window.
I nearly dropped the phone.
An officer contacted her through the building manager’s text system. Mom checked his identification through the camera before opening anything.
I had never loved her stubbornness more.
When the officers were inside, I finally sat down.
My legs folded without consulting me.
Lucia handed me a glass of water.
“Small sips,” she said.
“Is this normal for your parties?”
“No. Usually someone insults the florist.”
Nicholas crouched several feet away so I didn’t have to look up at him.
“Your mother can stay with someone you trust, or we can arrange a secure hotel. Your choice.”
“My friend Tessa.”
“Call her.”
I did.
Tessa answered with, “If you’re hiding in a bathroom because of Colin, I swear—”
“I need you to get my mother.”
The joke vanished from her face.
I gave her the shortest explanation possible.
She listened without interrupting, then reached for her coat.
“Send me the officer’s information. I’ll coordinate with them.”
“You don’t have to—”
“Audrey.”
That one word carried fourteen years of friendship.
I stopped arguing.
Across the room, Vivian received another call.
Her shoulders tightened.
“The silver-haired man is in custody,” she told Nicholas. “The younger one left through a catering exit before we closed it.”
“Weapon?”
“None on the older man. Police are checking the terrace and service areas.”
So there had been a plan.
Or enough of one to turn my mistake into a crime scene.
Nicholas looked toward the closed door.
“Who had the guest list?”
“Events staff. Senior management. Family office.”
Lucia’s fingers tightened around her glass.
“Graham,” she said.
Nicholas didn’t answer.
The name hung there.
“Who’s Graham?” I asked.
“My uncle,” Nicholas said. “Chief financial officer.”
“And your relative?”
“Yes.”
I looked between them.
“Please tell me ‘complicated family’ was an exaggeration.”
Nobody did.
A knock came at the door.
Vivian checked before opening it.
A handsome man in his early sixties entered wearing a midnight-blue tuxedo. His silver hair was arranged with the kind of precision money bought other people time to maintain.
“Nicholas. There are rumors.”
His eyes landed on me.
Only for a second.
But I saw recognition.
Not the recognition of someone meeting an unexpected date.
The recognition of someone seeing a problem he had already been informed about.
“Audrey,” he said pleasantly.
Nicholas straightened.
“I don’t believe you’ve been introduced.”
Graham’s smile held.
“Her hospital badge.”
It was a reasonable answer.
Except I had removed my badge fifteen minutes earlier.
It was inside my purse.
I felt Nicholas notice the same thing.
Graham turned toward Vivian.
“The guests are becoming uneasy. Perhaps we should make an announcement.”
“We’ll handle it,” Nicholas said.
For the first time, his voice had an edge.
Graham lifted both hands.
“Of course.”
He left as smoothly as he had arrived.
Through the narrowing doorway, I saw him turn toward a man waiting in the corridor.
His profile was partly obscured.
I caught only one phrase.
She called her mother.
I looked at Nicholas.
He was watching my face.
“What did you see?”
May you like
I swallowed.
“Enough to know your uncle is lying.”
