“Let her go, Marcus,” David repeated. He slowly raised his head, his eyes burning with a cold, terrifying clarity. “Or I will break your jaw right here in front of everyone.”
Marcus swallowed hard. His eyes darted nervously toward the three major board members standing near the catering table. They were watching him with narrow, suspicious eyes.
Slowly, Marcus let go of Sarah’s arm.
Sarah immediately rushed toward David, her hands clasped together in a desperate pleading motion. The front of her expensive white dress was still soaked with ice water and smeared with chocolate frosting. The torn inner lining flapped against her legs.
“David, please,” she sobbed, tears streaming down her perfectly contoured cheeks. “Marcus didn’t have anything to do with this. I was just terrified. You’ve been so stressed lately, and I wanted to make sure the company was protected if something happened to your health!”
David stepped back, disgusted by her touch.
“You brought a safecracker into my home,” David said, his voice deadly quiet. “You sewed my stolen financial power of attorney into the lining of your dress so you could smuggle it onto a flight to New York tonight.”
“No!” Sarah cried out, violently shaking her head. “No, Leo is lying! The boy is sick, David! He hates me!”
“Get out,” David said.
Sarah stopped crying. “What?”
“Get out of my house,” David said, pointing toward the heavy mahogany front doors. “Both of you. Right now.”
Marcus adjusted his suit jacket, his face hardening. The fake supportive brother act was instantly gone.
“You’re making a mistake, Dave,” Marcus said, his voice dropping to a low, threatening register. “You’re embarrassing yourself in front of the board.”
“If you are not off my property in ten seconds, I am calling the police and pressing felony theft charges,” David replied, pulling his phone from his pocket.
Marcus glared at him, then turned and marched out the front door. Sarah hesitated, looking at the stunned crowd of guests, before hiking up her ruined dress and running out after him.
The heavy front door slammed shut.
The dining room was dead silent. The jazz music playing from the ceiling speakers suddenly felt absurdly loud.
David turned to his guests. “The party is over. Please leave.”
Within ten minutes, the house was entirely empty. The caterers packed up in record time, leaving half-eaten plates of food and spilled wine on the tables.
David locked the front door. He turned and saw Leo sitting on the bottom step of the grand staircase. The eight-year-old was still covered in chocolate cake, hugging his knees to his chest.
David walked over and sat down heavily on the step next to his son.
“Are you mad at me, Dad?” Leo whispered, looking down at his messy shoes.
“No, buddy,” David said softly, pulling his son into a tight hug, not caring about the chocolate getting all over his expensive suit. “You did the right thing. You were incredibly brave. I’m so proud of you.”
Leo buried his face in his father’s chest. “She was going to take everything from you. I heard them.”
“I know,” David said, rubbing the boy’s back. “I’ve got it from here. I promise.”
Once David got Leo cleaned up and settled into bed with a movie, he walked down the hall to his private home office.
He closed the heavy oak door and walked straight to the oil painting hanging behind his desk. He swung the painting open, revealing the heavy steel biometric safe set into the wall.
The electronic keypad was dark.
David knelt and inspected the metal frame. There were deep scratches along the bottom edge. Whoever Sarah had hired had drilled a tiny hole directly into the side of the steel casing, feeding a wire through to short out the biometric scanner and trigger the manual release.
It was professional work. It wasn’t cheap.
David sat in his leather desk chair and ran a trembling hand over his face.
Four years. He had been married to Sarah for four years. He thought they were happy. He had given her everything—the house, the cars, unlimited access to his standard checking accounts.
And Marcus. His own brother. The man David had promoted to Vice President, the man he had trusted to run the day-to-day operations of his life’s work.
They had conspired to strip him of everything.
But David wasn’t a fool. After a string of high-end burglaries in their gated community last year, he had secretly upgraded the security system. He hadn’t told Sarah, knowing she hated feeling “watched” in her own home.
David opened his laptop and typed in an IP address.
He accessed the hidden micro-camera installed inside the smoke detector directly above the safe.
He pulled up the recorded footage from yesterday afternoon, fast-forwarding until he saw motion in the room.
The video loaded.
There was Sarah, walking into the office in a silk robe. She wasn’t alone. Marcus was right behind her.
David’s stomach dropped as he watched the footage.
Marcus didn’t just walk into the room. He walked up behind Sarah, wrapped his arms around her waist, and kissed the back of her neck. Sarah leaned back into his embrace, laughing silently.
The physical betrayal hit David harder than the financial theft. He gripped the edge of his desk so hard his knuckles turned white.
On the screen, a man in a gray work uniform entered the room carrying a heavy tool bag.
David unmuted the audio.
“How long?” Marcus asked the locksmith on the video.
“Ten minutes,” the man replied, setting his bag on the floor. “But like I said on the phone, the bypass destroys the biometric lock. He’ll know someone opened it the second he tries to use his thumbprint.”
