Chapter 6 - Shadows in the Garden
By midnight, the Kavanaugh estate was wrapped in a suffocating, unnatural silence.
The guest suite in the family wing was larger than Belle and Micah’s entire basement apartment, featuring high ceilings, a marble fireplace, and a king-sized bed with sheets softer than anything Belle had ever touched. Micah was fast asleep in the adjacent room, his breathing deep and even, exhausted from an evening spent building towering block castles with a little girl who hadn't smiled in two years.
Belle couldn't sleep.
She slipped out of bed, pulling a thin wool cardigan over her shoulders, and walked quietly to the tall arched window overlooking the rear gardens. The moonlight silvered the manicured hedges, the marble fountains, and the shadowy perimeter of the birch tree line where security cameras blinked their steady, rhythmic red lights.
Someone left that latch broken.
Renick’s words echoed relentlessly in her mind. If someone inside the estate—someone trusted, someone with access to the security logs—was trying to eliminate Brinley, then Micah was no longer just a boy who saved a life. He was a witness.
And witnesses in Renick Kavanaugh’s world didn't live very long.
A soft click echoed down the hallway.
It wasn't a door opening. It was the distinct, metallic sound of a floorboard shifting beneath a heavy shoe outside her suite.
Belle froze. Her breath caught in her throat.
She crept toward the heavy oak door of her bedroom, her bare feet making no sound on the plush carpet. She reached out and pressed her ear against the wood.
"...check the family wing," a low, muffled voice whispered just outside in the corridor. "The boss has the maid and the kid stashed up here. If the board finds out the girl survived, our leverage is gone."
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"What about the boy?" a second voice replied, gruff and cold. "He saw too much on the balcony. Clean it up. Make it look like a tragic accident before dawn."
Panic, cold and sharp, flooded Belle’s veins. They weren't just after Renick’s daughter. They were coming for Micah.
