Chapter 3 - THE SECOND GLASS
Arthur stared at the screen until the letters blurred.
ASK HER WHO THE SECOND GLASS WAS FOR.
He turned toward Victoria.
“What second glass?”
She said nothing.
“Victoria.”
The steel door behind them shook again.
Lily grabbed Arthur’s jacket.
“Daddy, we have to go.”
She was right.
Whatever answer Victoria had, it would not matter if Wesley’s men reached them first.
Arthur pointed toward the tunnel.
“Move.”
Victoria went ahead.
Arthur followed with Lily.
The tunnel was narrow and damp, built from poured concrete and old brick. Emergency lights glowed every twenty feet. Arthur had lived above it for six years.
He felt like a guest in his own life.
They emerged beneath the greenhouse through a floor hatch hidden under a potting bench.
Rain tapped the glass roof.
The greenhouse was dark except for the security lights outside.
Arthur locked the hatch.
Then he turned toward Victoria.
“Second glass.”
She looked exhausted.
“There was another glass.”
“I gathered that.”
“It was for me.”
Arthur stared.
“What?”
“I crushed two tablets.”
“You told me one.”
“I lied.”
His anger surged.
“Why?”
“Because you were already looking at me like I was a monster.”
“You drugged my drink.”
“And mine.”
Lily whispered, “Why yours?”
Victoria crouched.
Arthur stepped between them.
“Answer me.”
Victoria stood again.
“I planned to drink too.”
“That makes no sense.”
“I had arranged a driver.”
“Who?”
“My brother.”
Arthur’s jaw tightened.
“Daniel was coming here?”
“Yes.”
“When?”
“Eight.”
It was nearly nine now.
Arthur checked his phone.
No signal in the greenhouse.
He looked toward the service road.
“Where is he?”
“I don’t know.”
“You were going to drug yourself and me, then have Daniel move us?”
“Not Lily.”
Arthur went still.
Victoria saw it.
“She was supposed to be with her friend Emily tonight.”
Arthur remembered.
Lily had refused to go because Emily was sick.
“So your plan changed.”
“Yes.”
“And you still drugged my glass.”
“I panicked.”
“That word is doing too much work.”
Victoria closed her eyes.
“You’re right.”
“Why drug yourself?”
“So if we were stopped, it looked like we had both been exposed to something.”
Arthur stared.
“A poisoning.”
“A gas leak. Food contamination. I didn’t know what Daniel was going to use.”
“You were staging a medical emergency.”
“Yes.”
“For what?”
“To get you out of the house without triggering Wesley’s surveillance.”
Arthur laughed once.
“Do you hear yourself?”
“Yes.”
“Do you hear how insane this sounds?”
“Yes.”
Lily said, “She put the powder in two glasses.”
Arthur looked at her.
“You saw both?”
Lily nodded.
“She did yours first. Then hers.”
Victoria’s shoulders dropped.
The child had just verified part of the story.
Arthur hated that.
It would have been easier if Victoria were simply lying.
A simple betrayal could be punished.
A complicated one had to be understood.
Arthur moved to the greenhouse window.
The black SUV remained in front of the house.
Another vehicle had arrived near the garage.
No plates.
Men moving quietly.
Not thieves.
A team.
Victoria whispered, “We need to reach the caretaker road.”
Arthur looked at her.
“And then?”
“Daniel has a safe apartment downtown.”
“If he is alive.”
She flinched.
Arthur regretted it.
Not because it was cruel.
Because it might be true.
His phone suddenly found one bar of signal.
Messages poured in.
Five from the security company.
Two from his attorney.
One from an unknown number.
He opened the unknown message first.
A photograph.
Daniel Hale.
Arthur recognized him from old court files.
Older now.
Bearded.
Bleeding from the mouth.
Tied to a chair.
Victoria made a sound beside him.
“No.”
Below the photo:
COME TO THE OLD BENNETT PLANT.
BRING HENRY’S DRIVE.
Victoria grabbed Arthur’s phone.
“Daniel.”
Arthur took it back.
“You expected him tonight.”
“Yes.”
“Who else knew?”
“No one.”
“Wesley knew.”
“I didn’t tell him.”
“Someone did.”
Victoria looked toward the dark house.
“Your security system.”
Arthur’s eyes narrowed.
“What?”
“Daniel said the estate network had been compromised years ago.”
“By Wesley?”
“He thought so.”
Arthur remembered the mysterious message on the safe-room computer.
Do not take Victoria with you.
Someone other than Wesley knew they were underground.
Or Wesley himself was playing both sides.
Arthur felt sick of guessing.
He called 911.
Victoria grabbed his wrist.
“No.”
He shook her off.
“Not again.”
“Your father told you not to go to police until you know which officer opened Daniel’s case.”
“I heard him.”
“And you are calling anyway?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because I’m not letting a dead man run my decisions.”
The dispatcher answered.
Arthur gave the address and said armed intruders were inside his home.
He did not mention the safe room.
He did not mention the drive.
He did not mention Daniel.
He kept the call simple.
That felt like his first independent decision all night.
The dispatcher said officers were eight minutes away.
Victoria looked at him.
“You think they can help?”
“I think armed men broke into my house where my daughter lives.”
Lily hugged his waist.
Arthur looked down.
That was enough.
They moved toward the back service gate.
Halfway across the greenhouse, Lily stopped.
“My bear.”
Arthur turned.
“What?”
“My bear is inside.”
“Sweetheart, we can get another bear.”
“No.”
Her face collapsed.
“Mom gave it to me.”
Lily’s biological mother, Rachel, had died when Lily was four.
The bear was one of the few things she still slept with every night.
Arthur crouched.
“We will get it later.”
“Victoria said she packed it.”
Arthur looked up.
Victoria froze.
“You packed Lily’s bear?”
“Yes.”
“For the escape?”
“Yes.”
“Where?”
“In the car.”
Arthur stared.
“Which car?”
“My car. In the garage.”
Lily whispered, “Please.”
Arthur closed his eyes.
He should not go back.
Every instinct told him not to.
Then sirens sounded faintly in the distance.
Wesley’s men would hear them too.
They might leave.
Or become desperate.
Arthur made a decision.
“Lily stays with Victoria.”
Victoria nodded.
Arthur looked at her.
“If you take one step away from this greenhouse—”
“I won’t.”
He looked at Lily.
“I’ll get the bear.”
“Promise?”
“Promise.”
He slipped out through the side door and moved along the hedge toward the garage.
Rain soaked his shirt within seconds.
The garage side door was unlocked.
That was wrong.
He entered.
Victoria’s car sat in the second bay.
Driver’s door open.
Arthur approached slowly.
The bear was visible on the back seat.
So was something else.
A black duffel bag.
Arthur opened it.
Cash.
Stacks of hundred-dollar bills.
Three passports.
One in Victoria’s name.
One in Arthur’s.
One for Lily.
All false.
Arthur stared.
Prepared escape identities.
He picked up Victoria’s passport.
The photograph was recent.
She had planned more than one night away.
A voice spoke behind him.
“Now you understand.”
Arthur turned.
Wesley Crane stood in the garage doorway.
Gun in hand.
Arthur froze.
Wesley looked at the bag.
“Your wife was leaving you.”
Arthur said nothing.
“Daniel planned it.”
“You broke into my house.”
“I came for something that belongs to me.”
“The drive.”
“Yes.”
Arthur thought of his father’s warning.
A complete story is usually a prepared story.
He kept his voice steady.
“What is on it?”
“Proof Henry stole from me.”
“My father said he moved money because you were buying protection.”
Wesley smiled.
“Henry always needed a moral reason for theft.”
Arthur watched the gun.
“Daniel?”
“Alive.”
“For now.”
“Why take him?”
“Because he knows where Henry hid the real account key.”
Arthur frowned.
“So the drive isn’t the key.”
“No.”
Good.
Wesley did not know what was on the drive either.
Arthur almost smiled.
His father had built layers of distrust.
A car engine started outside.
Wesley glanced toward the sound.
Arthur moved.
He threw the passport at Wesley’s face and slammed the garage light switch.
Darkness.
Gunshot.
Glass shattered.
Arthur dropped behind Victoria’s car.
Wesley cursed.
Sirens grew louder.
Arthur crawled toward the back seat.
Lily’s bear lay inches away.
He grabbed it.
Another shot hit the concrete.
Then tires screamed.
Wesley ran.
Arthur stayed down until he heard police shouting outside.
Only then did he rise.
He clutched the bear in one hand.
The fake passport in the other.
A detective entered with her weapon raised.
“Hands!”
Arthur lifted them.
“I’m Arthur Bennett.”
“Drop what you’re holding.”
He put down the passport.
Kept the bear until she shouted again.
Then he set it gently on the floor.
The detective looked at the open duffel bag.
Cash.
Passports.
She looked at Arthur.
“What is this?”
He turned toward the greenhouse window.
Victoria stood outside with Lily and two officers.
Lily ran toward him.
Arthur lifted her.
Over her shoulder, he looked at Victoria.
She had seen the bag.
Her face told him the passports were not a surprise.
His trust fractured again.
Hours earlier, Lily had saved him from one drugged glass.
Now Arthur understood that the wine had never been the biggest secret in the room.
May you like
The escape had been planned long before tonight.
And Victoria had prepared to erase all three of their names.
