Chapter 56: The One Who Took the Hit

For three long seconds, darkness ruled the ballroom.

When the emergency lights finally flickered back to life, chaos erupted.

Guests shouted over one another.

Crystal glasses lay shattered across the marble floor.

Security guards rushed toward the auction stage.

The Ashford Family Diamond was gone.

So was Eleanor.

"Seal every exit!" Damien ordered.

His voice cut through the panic.

"Nobody leaves this estate!"

Guards immediately locked the ballroom doors.

Reporters began recording everything on their phones.

"Turn those cameras off," Victor barked.

"Now!"

Arthur's voice crackled through my earpiece.

"Vivian, I'm five minutes away."

"The airport was a complete diversion."

"I'm coming back."

"Forget the airport," I answered.

"Someone took Eleanor."

"What?"

"And the Ashford Diamond."

"I'm on my way."

Damien jumped down from the stage.

"Rose!"

"Did anyone see my mother leave?"

Rose looked terrified.

"No, sir."

"The lights went out... and when they came back..."

"She was gone."

Victor knelt beside the empty display pedestal.

"Interesting."

"What?" I asked.

"No broken glass."

"No damaged lock."

"The diamond wasn't stolen by force."

"Someone had the key."

"Inside job," Damien muttered.

"Again."

Before Victor could respond, a deafening crash echoed from the upper balcony.

Everyone looked up.

A masked figure dressed in black sprinted across the gallery.

"There!" a guest shouted.

"Stop him!"

Four security guards raced upstairs.

The stranger vaulted over a decorative railing and disappeared into the west corridor.

"He's heading toward Mother's suite!" Damien yelled.

Without thinking, he ran after him.

"Damien, wait!" I shouted.

He didn't.

Victor cursed under his breath.

"Arthur, where are you?"

"Pulling through the gates now."

"Good."

"Meet us upstairs."

Damien reached the corridor first.

Every bedroom door stood open.

Curtains billowed in the night breeze.

At the end of the hallway, the masked man disappeared into Eleanor's room.

"Don't move!" Damien shouted as he burst inside.

The room was empty.

Balcony doors stood wide open.

Rain soaked the carpet.

A rope hung over the stone railing.

"He went down!"

Damien grabbed the rope.

"Don't!" Victor shouted from the doorway.

Too late.

The rope snapped.

Damien fell over the balcony.

"Damien!"

He hit the lower terrace hard.

The impact echoed across the gardens.

I reached the balcony just in time to see him lying motionless below.

"Call an ambulance!" Rose screamed.

Guests flooded onto the terrace.

Arthur arrived at a run.

"Move!"

Victor was already racing down the staircase.

By the time we reached Damien, he was conscious.

Barely.

Blood trickled from a cut above his temple.

"Can you hear me?" I asked, dropping to my knees beside him.

He blinked slowly.

"Viv..."

"I'm here."

"Don't move."

Victor examined the broken rope.

"This wasn't old damage."

"It was cut halfway through beforehand."

"They expected someone to use it."

"Damien," Arthur asked quietly.

"Did you see the man's face?"

"No..." Damien whispered.

"Only..."

He winced in pain.

"Only his watch."

"Watch?"

"Silver."

"Engraved with a raven."

Victor exchanged a look with me.

Another Raven Capital symbol.

The ambulance siren echoed through the gates.

Paramedics hurried across the lawn.

As they lifted Damien onto a stretcher, something small slipped from inside his jacket.

A folded piece of paper.

I picked it up before anyone else noticed.

It wasn't there earlier.

Someone had slipped it into his pocket during the chase.

I unfolded it carefully.

Only one sentence.

"He wasn't the target."

My heartbeat quickened.

Victor read it over my shoulder.

"Then who was?"

Before I could answer, Rose came running from the ballroom.

Her face had turned completely white.

"Mrs. Vivian!"

"You need to come now!"

"What happened?"

"We found Mrs. Eleanor."

"Is she alive?" Damien asked weakly from the stretcher.

Rose nodded.

"Yes..."

"But someone else isn't."

"Who?" Victor demanded.

Rose swallowed hard.

"One of the security guards."

"He was found behind the stage."

"Shot once in the chest."

"He died protecting Mrs. Eleanor."

"Witnesses said he stepped in front of the bullet."

Victor's expression darkened.

"He took the hit..."

"For someone the shooter couldn't afford to miss."

Arthur's phone vibrated.

He looked at the screen and froze.

"Victor..."

"The dead guard has been identified."

"His name isn't on any Ashford payroll."

"According to government records..."

"He worked undercover for Detective Briggs."