Chapter 86
No.1
The dim lighting of the Oak Room seemed to spin around Elisa.
She stood frozen on the patterned carpet, staring at the glowing screen of her phone. The words blurred together. Kayden is gone. At the airport.
A cold, paralyzing terror gripped her throat,completely suffocating her. A five-year-old child.Alone. At a commercial airport.
Elisa's thumb violently hit the call button. She pressed the phone to her ear, her hand shaking so hard she could barely hold the device.
"Jewel!" Elisa gasped the second the line connected.Her voice was high, frantic, completely stripped of her usual cold armor. "Tell me this is a joke. Where is she?!"
On the other end of the line, Jewel was sobbing hysterically.
"I'm so sorry, Elisa!" Jewel cried, her voice echoing
No.2
with panic. "The airline flagged her at the security gate because she didn't have an adult! She cried and manipulated a sympathetic gate agent into calling me! I panicked, Elisa! If I said no, they would have called airport security and Child Protective Services!Her identity would be all over the news! I had to authorize the unaccompanied minor fee over the phone just to get her on the plane and keep her contained!"
Elisa's knees buckled. She had to lean heavily against a wooden dining chair to keep from collapsing.
Her brilliant, genius daughter had used her intellect to build a bomb.
"What time does the flight land?" Elisa demanded,forcing her brain to override the panic.
"In less than an hour!" Jewel sobbed. "I'm already in the car heading to the private airfield. I'm taking a helicopter to Manhattan, but I won't make it before she lands!"
Elisa's chest heaved. She looked at her watch. 6:00PM.
Her grandfather's banquet was starting in thirty minutes. Arthur Sinclair's massive birthday party for Tate was starting right next door. August Chambers was currently in transit to this exact hotel.
No.3
If Kayden landed at JFK, took a cab, and walked into the lobby of The Plaza Hotel...
If August saw a five-year-old girl with his exact dark eyes, his exact jawline, calling Elisa "Mommy"...
The seven-year secret would detonate. August would realize he had an heir. He would use his billions, his lawyers, and his absolute ruthlessness to rip Kayden out of Elisa's arms forever. It was a fate worse than death.
"I'll handle it," Elisa said, her voice dropping to a terrifying, deadly calm. "Get here as fast as you can."
She hung up the phone. She immediately dialed the private security firm Aethel Intelligence kept on retainer. She ordered a four-man extraction team to speed to JFK, but the Friday night traffic was a nightmare. They might not make it in time.
She couldn't leave the hotel. If she left, her grandfather would arrive and be completely alone,
vulnerable to the cruel mockery of Arthur Sinclair and his family.
No.4
She was trapped in a suffocating, impossible nightmare.
Suddenly,her phone vibrated again. It was Alastair.
Elisa answered it, unable to hide the ragged,desperate sound of her breathing.
"Faye?" Alastair's deep voice was instantly alert."What's wrong? You sound like you're suffocating."
Elisa closed her eyes. A tear leaked out, burning a hot trail down her cheek. She couldn't tell him the whole truth. She couldn't expose Kayden's paternity.
"Alastair," Elisa choked out. "I have a massive crisis.A... a very important young relative of mine. She booked a flight by herself. She's landing at JFK in forty-five minutes. I can't leave the hotel to get her. If she wanders into the city..."
"Say no more," Alastair's voice was calm and absolute. "I am currently in a board meeting, but my Chief of Security is at JFK right now, extracting another client. He is exactly ten minutes from her
No.5
gate. I am dispatching him immediately. He will intercept her and bring her directly to my secure armored vehicle."
Elisa let out a loud, shuddering sob of pure relief."Alastair...thank you. Thank you."
"Breathe, Faye," Alastair commanded softly."I've got her.Focus on your grandfather."
Elisa hung up and rapidly texted him Kayden's photo and flight details.
She wiped her face, forcing her expression to harden back into stone.
The heavy doors of the Oak Room slowly pushed open.
Phineas was wheeled into the room by a private nurse. The old man was wearing a neat,pressed suit.His eyes were cloudy with dementia, but a wide,happy smile stretched across his wrinkled face.
No.6
"Elisa, my beautiful girl," Phineas croaked, reaching his trembling hands out toward her. "Are the guests here? Is it time for cake?"
Elisa's heart shattered into a thousand pieces. She
rushed forward and knelt beside his wheelchair,taking his frail hands in hers.
"They are coming, Grandpa," Elisa whispered, forcing a bright, warm smile onto her face. "It's going to be a wonderful party."
Just as she spoke, a massive, deafening blast of bass music vibrated through the floorboards.
The wall separating the Oak Room from the Grand Ballroom shook. Tate's birthday party had started.The sound of a live DJ and screaming children bled through the cheap partition walls, completely shattering the quiet dignity of the Oak Room.
Phineas winced, pulling his hands away from Elisa to cover his ears. "Why is it so loud? Is there a storm?"
No.7
Elisa stood up. She glared at the adjoining wall with a look of pure, homicidal fury. The hotel manager had lied. There was no isolation.
She turned to the nurse. "Lock the main doors. Do not let anyone in unless they are on my specific guest list."
Downstairs, in the opulent main lobby of The Plaza.
The revolving doors spun, and August Chambers walked in. He was wearing a stunning midnight-blue tuxedo. He looked like a king arriving to inspect his kingdom.
He didn't look at the directory for the Oak Room. He didn't ask the concierge where his wife's grandfather was celebrating.
He followed the sound of the loud music, walking straight toward the Grand Ballroom to fulfill his promise to Allena.
Upstairs, Elisa stood by her grandfather, her eyes locked on the locked doors. The countdown had reached zero. The bomb was in the building.