Chapter 5 - The Rose Garden Trap
The wooden latch door opened with a groan of rusted hinges, revealing a steep, narrow shaft covered in decades of soot and dry leaves.
"I’ll go first," David whispered, squeezing his broad shoulders through the narrow entry. "Sophia, you come next, then Emma. If anything happens, run straight toward the main road."
One by one, they crawled up the angled stone chute. The air grew fresher, colder, smelling of pine needles and damp earth. After twenty feet of agonizing crawling, David hit a heavy iron grate covered in thick ivy leaves. He pushed upward with his shoulders, straining until the rusted bolts gave way with a muffled pop.
They tumbled out into the wet grass of the rose garden.
The night air was cold, but to Sophia, who hadn't felt the wind in three years, it was overwhelming. She looked up at the stars, tears spilling down her dirty cheeks. "The sky..." she whispered. "It's still there."
"Come on, sweetie, we have to keep moving," David urged, lifting Sophia into his arms while pulling Emma along by her hand.
They stayed low, using the thick row of tall boxwood hedges to conceal their movement toward the front iron gates of the five-acre estate. But as they rounded the perimeter wall near the stone fountain, bright white headlights suddenly cut through the dark.
A heavy black SUV blocked the main driveway gate.
Standing in the light of the high beams was Victoria, holding a slender silver remote control, flanked by two armed men.
"I had a feeling you remembered the old coal chute, David," Victoria said smoothly, her voice amplified by the quiet night air. "You built the renovation plans yourself, after all."
David stopped thirty feet away, keeping his body between the headlights and his daughters. "It’s over, Victoria. You can’t hide this. People know."
"No one knows anything," Victoria replied coldly. "By tomorrow morning, the papers will report that a tragic electrical fire swept through the Vance mansion. A heartbroken father and his two daughters were trapped inside. The grieving widow will inherit the estate without a single question asked."
One of the armed men drew a sleek, suppressed pistol from his jacket.
Emma squeezed her eyes shut, clinging to her father’s leg. But Sophia stepped out from behind her father, her voice small yet clear as a bell in the silent courtyard.
"You forgot about the red button," Sophia said, looking directly at Victoria.
Victoria’s confident smile faltered slightly. "What?"
"The red button under the desk in the study," Sophia continued, taking a step forward. "When you brought the bad men into the house two days ago, you told them never to hit the red button because it sends an automatic signal to the State Police station."
Victoria’s eyes went wide with sudden panic. "You... you couldn't have reached that."
"I didn't," Sophia said softly. "Emma did. While you were kicking her in the hall."
Victoria spun around toward Emma, horror dawning on her face.
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Emma looked up, her tear-stained face suddenly firm. "You dropped your keys when Papa came home. I picked them up and ran to the study while you were arguing at the vent."
Before Victoria could react, loud sirens began to wail in the distance, their red and blue lights flashing through the dense pine trees at the end of the long driveway.
