Chapter 5 - The Riverside Confrontation
The rain lashed against the reinforced glass windows of the penthouse suite on the twentieth floor of the Riverside Hotel. Inside, the room was dimly lit, save for the harsh blue glow of a laptop screen sitting open on the mahogany desk.
Amanda paced back and forth across the plush carpet, her wedding dress discarded in a heap by the door, replaced by a dark trench coat and sensible travel boots. Her hair was tied back in a messy knot, and her hands shook violently as she raised a burner phone to her ear.
“The line is busy, or the subscriber you have dialed is no longer in service,” a mechanical automated voice droned for the fifth consecutive time.
“Damn it! Pick up!” Amanda hissed, throwing the phone onto the king-sized bed.
She walked over to the open suitcase lying on the mattress, frantically tossing bundles of cash, forged passports, and legal documents into the leather interior. Her mind was racing a mile a minute. The wedding was ruined. Daniel had seen the locket. If he showed that locket to the wrong people—if he connected it to the old trusts her father had set up—the whole house of cards would come crashing down.
She wasn't just losing a fiancé; she was looking at federal prison time.
Suddenly, a sharp, heavy knock echoed off the suite’s double doors.
Thump. Thump. Thump.
Amanda froze, her breath catching in her throat. She crept slowly toward the peephole, her heart hammering against her ribs like a trapped bird.
Through the small glass lens, she saw him.
Daniel stood in the hallway alone—no security guards, no police, just a man whose daughter had been struck by the woman he trusted. His face was carved from stone, his eyes dark and unreadable.
“Amanda. Open the door,” Daniel’s voice carried through the wood, calm, quiet, and absolutely terrifying.
“Go away, Daniel!” Amanda shouted back, her voice pitching up in panic as she grabbed a heavy brass lamp from the bedside table. “It’s over! We’re done! Leave me alone or I’ll call hotel security!”
“You can call whoever you want,” Daniel replied softly. “But the door is coming down in five seconds whether you turn the deadbolt or not.”
Before Amanda could scream another warning, a heavy, calculated impact hit the center of the door just beside the lock. The wood splintered inward, the heavy iron deadbolt snapping like a toothpick under superior force.
With a second heavy shove, the door swung wide open.
Daniel stepped into the suite. He wasn't carrying Sophie this time—she was safely asleep upstairs in the penthouse under Frank’s watchful eye. He walked in with the slow, inevitable momentum of an avalanche.
Amanda stumbled backward, brandishing the heavy brass lamp like a club. “Stay back! Don't you come near me! You have no idea what you’re meddling in!”
“I think I have a very clear idea now,” Daniel said, stopping five feet away from her. He reached into his coat pocket and pulled out the tarnished silver locket, holding it up so the dim light caught the metal. “Tell me about Elena, Amanda.”
The moment those words left his mouth, the color drained completely from Amanda’s face. The brass lamp slipped from her trembling fingers, hitting the carpeted floor with a dull thud.
“What… what did you say?” she whispered, her voice barely audible over the sound of the rain outside.
“You heard me,” Daniel said, closing the distance between them with dangerous speed. He caught her by the wrist before she could bolt toward the balcony. “Where is your sister? And why were you willing to terrorize a twenty-month-old child to keep me from looking inside this locket?”
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Amanda stared up at him, her eyes wide with a mixture of terror and unhinged fury. For a second, she looked like she might scream, but then her shoulders slumped, and a bitter, cracked laugh escaped her lips.
“You think you’re so smart, don't you?” Amanda sneered, her voice dropping into a venomous whisper. “You think you found a smoking gun in a toddler’s toy basket. But you have no idea what’s buried under the floorboards of this family, Daniel. And if you dig any deeper… it’s going to bury you right along with me.”
