Chapter 5 5

The morning sun glared off the hood of the black Aston Martin parked on a quiet street in Silicon Valley.

Inside the car, the air was thick with tension.

Etienne sat in the driver's seat, aggressively dragging on a cigarette. His eyes were bloodshot, his knuckles bruised.

The passenger door opened. Zane Holtz, Etienne's right-hand man, slid in, looking exhausted.

Zane tossed a sleek tablet onto Etienne's lap.

"Did you find her?" Etienne demanded, his voice dangerously low.

Zane rubbed his temples. "I pulled the guest list and staff registry for the golden anniversary party at the estate you pointed out. There is no girl matching that description."

Etienne snatched the tablet.

He swiped violently through the photos. Elderly billionaires. Middle-aged catering staff.

His jaw ticked. "Look harder. She was wearing a gray dress. Second floor."

"Etienne," Zane sighed. "I hacked their security feeds. Nobody went up to the second floor yesterday. The house belongs to the Harrisons. They're tech money. They don't even have maids in gray uniforms."

Etienne froze.

The cigarette burned dangerously close to his fingers.

His mind raced back to yesterday. The low hedge. The Dobermans. The massive property line.

He slammed his fist against the steering wheel. The horn blared sharply.

"I was in the wrong fucking house," Etienne snarled, the realization hitting him like a freight train.

Zane blinked. "What?"

"Who owns the estate next to the Harrisons?" Etienne demanded, grabbing Zane's collar.

Zane swallowed hard. "The Reeds. Old California money."

"Get me their guest list. Now."

Zane shook his head slowly. "I can't. The Reeds went on total lockdown last night. Total media blackout. Word on the street is there was a massive scandal at the wedding. No one is talking."

Etienne released Zane. He stared out the windshield, his chest rising and falling heavily.

She was right there. Behind a wall of silence.

At that exact moment, inside the Reed estate, the silence was suffocating.

The heavy mahogany doors of the formal dining room were locked.

Katelyn stood barefoot on the freezing marble floor. She wore a thin, oversized sweater.

She kept her head bowed, forcing her shoulders to tremble.

Her uncle Arnett sat at the head of the long table, his face a mask of cold fury.

Aunt Meredith sneered from the side.

Chelsea stood near the window, her eyes red and swollen from crying.

"You ruined my life!" Chelsea shrieked.

Chelsea grabbed a heavy, acrylic-framed photograph from the table and hurled it directly at Katelyn. The frame shattered against the marble floor right at Katelyn's feet. It held a close-up of the blood-red skull painted over the dove. A jagged, heavy shard of the broken acrylic bounced up and violently sliced across Katelyn's cheek.

A thin line of blood welled up, dripping slowly down her jaw.

Katelyn didn't flinch. She didn't wipe it away. She just stared blankly at the floor.

Her cousin Brien leaned against the doorframe, swirling a glass of scotch.

"Let it go, Chels," Brien drawled. "She's a psycho. What did you expect?"

Arnett slammed his hand flat against the table. The crystal glasses rattled.

The room fell dead silent.

Arnett stood up. He walked slowly around the table, stopping inches in front of Katelyn.

He reached out and grabbed her chin, his fingers digging painfully into her jawbone. He forced her head up.

His eyes, dark and obsessive, roamed over her face.

"Why did you paint that?" Arnett demanded, his voice a lethal whisper.

Katelyn forced her eyes to glaze over.

"I... I don't know," she stammered, her voice breaking perfectly. "I saw blood. I just... saw blood."

Arnett's grip tightened until she thought her bone would snap.

He leaned in, inhaling deeply. The smell of his stale cigar smoke made Katelyn's stomach heave.

"You have the same sick, twisted blood in your veins as your whore of a mother," Arnett spat, his eyes gleaming with a sick, twisted fixation.

At the mention of her mother, Katelyn's fingernails bit so deeply into her palms that they drew blood.

The physical pain grounded her, keeping the explosive rage locked inside.

Arnett shoved her face away.

"Cut her medical budget for the month," Arnett ordered Meredith. "And burn every single paintbrush and canvas in her room."

Chelsea smiled maliciously. "Lock her in the basement."

"No," Arnett snapped. "The media is already sniffing around. I won't have them finding out we keep a lunatic in a cage."

Alistair grabbed Katelyn's arm and dragged her back upstairs.

When the door locked behind her, Katelyn walked straight to the mirror.

She looked at the blood drying on her cheek.

The trembling stopped. The fear vanished.

She dropped to her knees, reached under the floorboards beneath her bed, and pulled out a rolled-up canvas.

It was her masterpiece. The Chimera.

She ran her fingers over the chaotic, violent brushstrokes.

Her new burner phone buzzed in her pocket.

Eleanor: "Tomorrow. 3 PM. Be ready."

Katelyn typed back: "I'll be there."

She snapped the SIM card in half and threw the phone into the toilet.