The Blackout in Ashford House
Chapter 04 - The Blackout in Ashford House
Darkness swallowed the mansion.
Guests screamed. Glass shattered. The emergency lights should have activated within three seconds.
They did not.
Grant reached for Ava and found only empty air.
“Ava!”
Someone struck him from the side. He hit the edge of the library desk and fell to one knee.
Marcus switched on a tactical flashlight.
The beam caught a man in a catering uniform dragging Ava through the hidden door behind the bookshelves.
Marcus ran after them.
Grant rose despite the pain in his back and followed.
The passage beyond the library had been built during the 1920s. Few people knew it existed. Victoria did.
The catering worker pulled Ava toward a service staircase. She drove her heel down on his foot and twisted free long enough to scream.
Marcus tackled the man against the wall.
The sapphire pendant fell from the man’s pocket.
Victoria no longer wore it.
Ava picked it up.
“Where is she?”
The worker refused to answer.
Grant returned to the library with Ava and the pendant. Naomi treated the cut near his temple while Marcus secured the attacker.
The clock battery had stopped during the blackout, but Grant checked his watch.
Eleven fifty-eight.
Marcus inserted the sapphire into a concealed reader behind the library desk.
The trust portal recognized the token.
Leonard uploaded the declaration.
UPLOAD PENDING.
Victoria reappeared in the doorway.
Her silver gown was torn near the shoulder. She looked frightened enough to appear innocent.
“He attacked me too,” she said. “He took the pendant.”
Marcus looked at the detained worker’s phone.
The final text message read:
GET THE GIRL OUT BEFORE 12. V.A.
Victoria saw the screen.
“That could mean anyone.”
Grant’s voice was quiet.
“It means Victoria Ashford.”
She turned to Leonard.
“You cannot let a damaged man surrender the company to a stranger.”
Ava stepped forward.
“I am not asking him to surrender anything.”
“You came here with a rehearsed story and an old letter.”
“My mother spent her entire life avoiding this house.”
Victoria smiled bitterly.
“Because she knew Grant chose me.”
Grant looked at his wife.
“No. Rachel disappeared because someone told her our baby died.”
The upload bar reached ninety percent.
Eleven fifty-nine.
The mansion’s generator finally activated. Lights flickered on throughout the library.
The portal froze.
SERVER CONNECTION LOST.
Marcus cursed.
Someone inside Ashford Global had shut down the external trust server.
The declaration had not completed.
Guests in the ballroom began counting down the final ten seconds of the year, unaware that control of an empire was being decided behind a locked library door.
Ten.
Nine.
Grant looked at Ava.
Eight.
Ava looked at the old brass grandfather clock.
Seven.
Its face carried the Ashford family crest.
Six.
Rachel’s letter included one final line Grant had not understood.
When the house lies, trust the clock.
Five.
Ava opened the clock’s lower cabinet.
Four.
Inside was a second security terminal.
Three.
She inserted the sapphire key.
Two.
The terminal flashed green.
One.
The declaration uploaded.
May you like
At midnight, the mansion bells rang.
Victoria screamed.
