Chapter 2 - The Woman in the Red Dress.
The service corridor smelled of detergent, coffee, and overheated machinery.
Claire ran harder than she had run in years.
Her cheap work shoes slapped against the concrete floor.
Behind her, the employee door crashed open.
“Claire!”
Julian’s voice followed her.
She reached the service elevator and stabbed the button.
Nothing happened.
The indicator showed twenty-three.
Too far.
Claire looked toward the stairwell.
Seventeen floors.
She could not outrun security that long.
A hand suddenly grabbed her wrist.
Claire spun and lifted her elbow.
“Stop.”
Sloane stood behind her.
The crimson gown looked almost absurd beneath the fluorescent employee lights.
One heel was missing.
Her diamond necklace was crooked.
She was breathing hard.
Claire yanked her arm away.
“Get away from me.”
“I’m trying to help.”
“You were hanging on my husband ten minutes ago.”
Sloane flinched.
“I didn’t know.”
Claire laughed bitterly.
“That seems convenient.”
“It’s the truth.”
Heavy footsteps entered the corridor behind them.
Sloane looked over Claire’s shoulder.
“They’re coming.”
Claire turned toward the stairwell.
Sloane caught her again.
“No.”
She pulled a gold access card from a hidden pocket in her dress.
“My family owns this building.”
She pressed the card against the freight elevator reader.
The doors immediately opened.
Claire hesitated.
Sloane stepped inside.
“If Julian wants to stop you from reaching seventeen, I want to know why.”
Claire entered.
The doors closed just as two security guards rounded the corner.
Sloane pressed seventeen.
Claire backed against the wall.
Neither woman spoke for several seconds.
The elevator began rising.
Finally, Sloane looked at the gold ring around Claire’s neck.
“When did you marry him?”
“Five years ago.”
Sloane closed her eyes.
“He told me his wife died before they could have children.”
Claire stared at her.
“What?”
“He said you died.”
Claire’s stomach tightened.
“When?”
Sloane opened her eyes.
“Three years ago.”
Claire felt the pieces shifting.
Her disappearance.
Julian’s supposed death.
The insurance documents.
The fake identities.
“What did he say happened to me?”
“A boating accident.”
Claire almost smiled.
She hated the sound that came from her throat instead.
“I’ve never owned a boat.”
Sloane looked sick.
The elevator reached twelve.
“Julian approached my father two years ago.”
Sloane swallowed.
“He said he was a widower.”
“Why did your father trust him?”
“He made money.”
“That’s usually enough.”
Sloane did not defend her family.
“My father made him chief development officer.”
Claire looked at her.
“Julian never worked in hotel development.”
Sloane’s face changed.
“What did he do?”
“Accounting.”
The elevator reached fifteen.
“He specialized in tracing offshore fraud.”
Sloane stared at her.
The irony settled between them.
Julian had not simply become a criminal.
He had understood exactly how to hide one.
The elevator reached sixteen.
Then it stopped.
The lights flickered.
Claire looked upward.
Sloane pressed seventeen again.
Nothing.
A red message appeared.
SECURITY OVERRIDE.
Claire’s blood went cold.
“He found us.”
Sloane pulled out her phone.
No signal.
Claire looked at the ceiling hatch.
Too high.
Then the emergency speaker crackled.
Julian’s voice filled the elevator.
“Claire.”
She stared at the speaker.
“Get out of the elevator.”
Julian sounded calm again.
Too calm.
“You don’t know what’s in Room 1708.”
Claire stepped toward the speaker.
“Then tell me.”
Silence.
Sloane looked at her.
May you like
Julian finally answered.
“Your mother isn’t the only person we kept alive.”
