Marcus closed the door behind her.
Daniel crouched.
“Who?”
Sophie reached into the pocket of her dress.
She pulled out a black smartphone.
“I found this under the stairs.”
Daniel stared at it.
“Did you touch anything?”
Sophie shook her head.
“The screen was already on.”
Daniel took the phone.
One message remained visible.
PHASE ONE FAILED. MOVE TO PHASE TWO.
Daniel’s blood ran cold.
A second message appeared.
THE GIRL SAW HIM.
Everyone looked at Sophie.
Then the lights went out.
Evelyn screamed.
Daniel grabbed Sophie and pulled her against him.
“Marcus!”
Emergency lights flickered red along the walls.
Security alarms began howling throughout the mansion.
A gunshot cracked somewhere upstairs.
Guests screamed.
“Get down!”
Daniel pushed Sophie behind the security desk.
Marcus drew his weapon and opened the door.
Another shot.
Then silence.
Daniel looked at Evelyn.
“Stay with Sophie.”
“Where are you going?”
“To end this.”
“No.”
Evelyn grabbed his arm.
“That’s exactly what they want.”
Daniel stopped.
She was right.
Someone wanted him angry.
Someone wanted him moving without thinking.
Just as he had downstairs.
Daniel looked at the phone again.
“Phase two.”
He suddenly understood.
“The hospital.”
Evelyn’s eyes widened.
“Lily.”
Daniel called Dr. Hart.
No answer.
Again.
Nothing.
On the third attempt, someone answered.
But it wasn’t the doctor.
A distorted male voice spoke.
“Mr. Cross.”
Daniel went completely still.
“Where is my daughter?”
“She’s safe.”
“If you touch her—”
“You’re still making threats when you should be asking questions.”
Daniel clenched the phone.
“What do you want?”
“The truth.”
“About what?”
A pause.
Then:
“Ask your wife what happened seven years ago.”
Daniel looked at Evelyn.
The color disappeared from her face.
The call ended.
Daniel lowered the phone.
“What happened seven years ago?”
Evelyn backed away.
“Daniel…”
“What happened?”
Her eyes filled with tears.
Seven years ago was when Sophie had been born.
It was also the year Daniel’s first wife, Rebecca, had died in what police called a highway accident.
Evelyn had been Rebecca’s closest friend.
Daniel had met her at the funeral.
Suddenly, memories he had never questioned began rearranging themselves.
Evelyn shook her head.
“I wanted to tell you.”
“Tell me what?”
“Rebecca’s death wasn’t an accident.”
Daniel stopped breathing.
“What?”
“She knew someone was stealing money from Cross Industries.”
Daniel stared at her.
“Who?”
“I never knew his name.”
“Why didn’t you tell the police?”
“Because Rebecca did.”
Evelyn’s voice trembled.
“And twelve hours later, she was dead.”
Daniel’s face went blank.
Evelyn continued.
“She gave me a key before she died. She told me that if anything happened to her, I was supposed to protect Sophie.”
Daniel looked toward his daughter.
“And you kept this from me for seven years?”
“I was terrified.”
“You married me.”
“Yes.”
“Was that part of protecting her?”
Evelyn’s tears fell.
“At first?”
She hesitated.
“Yes.”
That answer hurt more than Daniel expected.
“At first?”
“I fell in love with you.”
Daniel looked away.
He didn’t know what to believe anymore.
His brother’s cuff link.
The missing footage.
Rebecca’s death.
The attack on Lily.
Everything connected.
But he couldn’t see how.
“Where is the key?”
Evelyn reached beneath the neckline of her gown.
A thin chain appeared.
At the end hung a tiny brass key.
“I’ve worn it every day for seven years.”
Daniel stared at it.
“What does it open?”
“I don’t know.”
A voice came from the doorway.
“I do.”
Everyone turned.
Charles Cross stood there.
His tuxedo jacket was torn.
Blood ran from his forehead.
Marcus raised his weapon.
“Hands where I can see them.”
Charles raised both hands.
Daniel stepped toward his brother.
“Your cuff link was on the stairs.”
“I know.”
“How?”
“Because somebody stole it from my dressing room.”
Daniel’s eyes narrowed.
“You expect me to believe you?”
Charles gave a bitter laugh.
“Considering somebody just tried to shoot me upstairs, yes.”
Evelyn held up the key.
Charles’s expression changed.
“Rebecca gave you that?”
“You recognize it?”
Charles slowly nodded.
“That key opens our father’s private deposit box.”
Daniel stared at him.
“Our father has been dead for nine years.”
“Yes.”
“Then why would Rebecca have his key?”
Charles looked toward Sophie.
“Because Dad knew someone inside Cross Industries was laundering millions.”
Daniel’s voice dropped.
“Who?”
Charles looked directly at him.
“We never found out.”
Then Marcus’s radio crackled.
The hospital security team had been located.
Both officers were unconscious inside the parking garage.
Dr. Hart had been found in an elevator.
Lily was gone.
Evelyn collapsed against the wall.
“No…”
Daniel didn’t move.
His face became frighteningly calm.
Then the black smartphone in his hand vibrated.
A photograph appeared.
Lily was lying safely inside a crib.
Beside her was a newspaper.
Today’s date.
Under the photograph were seven words:
BRING THE KEY. COME ALONE. MIDNIGHT.
Daniel stared at the screen.
Then another photograph arrived.
This one had been taken inside his own ballroom less than an hour earlier.
It showed Daniel holding Lily.
Evelyn standing on the stairs.
Sophie watching from the crowd.
And in the far corner stood a man Daniel immediately recognized.
A man who should have been impossible to photograph.
Daniel’s hands began trembling.
Charles looked over his shoulder.
“What is it?”
Daniel enlarged the image.
Evelyn gasped.
Sophie whispered:
“Daddy… who is that?”
Daniel could barely answer.
Because standing beneath the chandelier was his father.
Richard Cross.
The man Daniel had buried nine years ago.
The phone vibrated one final time.
MIDNIGHT, SON.
COME HEAR WHY YOUR FATHER HAD TO DIE TWICE.
And for the first time that night, Daniel understood something far more terrifying than the attack itself.
Whoever had taken Lily did not want money.
They wanted Daniel to uncover a secret his family had spent nearly a decade burying.
And somewhere in the city, the clock had already begun counting down to midnight.
CHAPTER 1 — MIDNIGHT, SON
“IF THAT MAN IS REALLY MY FATHER, THEN SOMEBODY BURIED THE WRONG BODY.”
