Chapter 1
The barefoot woman crossed the marble lobby with blood running down her ankle.
Guests stepped away from her.
Some covered their noses.
Others lifted their phones and began recording.
Vanessa Somor stood beneath the resort’s crystal chandelier, wearing a white designer dress and Elena’s stolen gold access badge.
“Get this nobody out of my resort!” Vanessa shouted.
Two security guards approached Elena.
She did not resist.
She looked exhausted, soaked by rain, and barely able to stand.
Her dress was torn at the shoulder. A dark bruise covered one side of her face.
Vanessa smiled.
“Look at her. She probably crawled out of a ditch.”
“I did,” Elena said quietly.
The smile disappeared.
Elena had spent twelve hours climbing from the wreckage of her car, crossing a forest, and following the resort lights through the storm.
The crash had broken two ribs.
It had also revealed who wanted her dead.
Vanessa walked toward her.
“You need to leave before you frighten our guests.”
“Our guests?”
Vanessa slapped Elena across the face.
The lobby fell silent.
Elena slowly turned her head back.
Then she struck Vanessa with an open hand.
Vanessa stumbled into a luggage cart.
“You filthy animal!”
She raised her hand again, but Elena caught her wrist.
“You only get one mistake.”
The head of security hurried forward.
“Ma’am, release Mrs. Somor.”
Elena reached inside her torn dress and removed a small wooden case.
It had belonged to her grandfather, Augustus Somor, founder of the Somor Grand Resorts.
Inside rested his original gold trustee badge.
Vanessa laughed.
“That antique won’t save you.”
Elena pressed the badge against the security terminal.
For one second, nothing happened.
Then steel shutters dropped over every exit.
The elevators stopped.
The lobby doors locked.
Every security officer received the same alert.
MASTER TRUSTEE PROTOCOL ACTIVATED.
The large screens behind the reception desk went black.
New words appeared.
ELENA SOMOR — MAJORITY TRUSTEE.
Gasps spread across the lobby.
Vanessa stared at the screen.
“That’s impossible.”
“No,” Elena replied. “It’s inconvenient.”
The private elevator opened.
Daniel Somor stepped into the lobby.
He was Elena’s older cousin, Vanessa’s husband, and the man who had been acting as chairman since Elena’s disappearance.
When he saw her, all color left his face.
“You’re alive.”
Elena looked directly at him.
“That wasn’t your plan.”
Daniel tried to turn back toward the elevator.
The doors had already locked.
Elena entered a second command.
Security footage filled the lobby screens.
It showed Daniel’s black SUV following Elena’s car along the mountain road.
Another camera captured the SUV striking her rear bumper.
Her car broke through the guardrail and vanished into the ravine.
Vanessa reached for the access badge hanging from her neck.
Elena tore it away.
The badge belonged to an employee who had disappeared three days earlier.
“You called this your resort,” Elena said. “Now it’s your crime scene.”
Police sirens rose outside.
The master lockdown released only for law enforcement.
Officers entered and placed Daniel and Vanessa in handcuffs.
Daniel struggled.
“She’s mentally unstable! She disappeared for three weeks!”
“I was held in a hunting cabin for nineteen days,” Elena replied. “Ask Vanessa why her fingerprints are on the lock.”
Vanessa stopped fighting.
As officers led them through the staring crowd, Elena finally allowed herself to breathe.
Then the lobby manager opened the wooden case.
Beneath the gold badge was a folded note Elena had not placed there.
It carried her dead grandfather’s handwriting.
If you survived Daniel, do not trust the police.
May you like
One of them helped him kill me.
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