Chapter 4 - THE STRANGER OUTSIDE HER WINDOW
Delaney didn't scream.
Shock swallowed the sound before it reached her throat.
Her mother's photographs lay across the floor.
The handmade quilt Margaret had sewn during chemotherapy had been ripped open.
Even the small wooden jewelry box containing her mother's last letters had been smashed.
Delaney backed into the hallway.
Someone had entered her home.
Someone knew she'd visited the Bianchi mansion.
And someone wanted her frightened.
Her phone shook in her hands as she called Frank.
He answered immediately.
"Miss Whitfield?"
"Someone broke into my apartment."
His tone changed.
"Are you inside?"
"No."
"Don't enter. Go downstairs."
Then she heard footsteps.
Slow.
Heavy.
Coming from the stairwell below.
Delaney turned.
A man in a gray hooded jacket appeared at the landing.
His face was partly hidden.
But she saw something silver in his hand.
A knife.
"Miss Whitfield," Frank said sharply, "what's happening?"
The stranger began climbing.
Delaney ran.
She sprinted down the hallway toward the rear emergency exit.
"Stop!"
The man lunged.
Delaney slammed through the fire door and stumbled onto the metal staircase.
Snow struck her face.
Three floors below, headlights flashed.
A black SUV stopped beneath the stairs.
The driver's door opened.
Damon Bianchi stepped out.
"Delaney!"
She had never been so relieved to hear a stranger say her name.
"Behind me!"
The hooded man appeared above her.
Damon looked up.
His expression turned lethal.
"Move away from her."
The attacker hesitated.
Then fled back inside.
Damon rushed up the stairs.
He caught Delaney before her knees gave way.
"Are you hurt?"
She shook her head.
He removed his coat and wrapped it around her shoulders.
"Look at me."
She struggled to focus.
"You're safe."
"How did you know?"
"Frank called me."
He guided her downstairs.
Two security vehicles arrived moments later.
Damon ordered his men to secure the building and contact the police.
Then he turned back to Delaney.
"I'm taking you somewhere safe."
She looked toward her apartment.
"Everything my mother left me is in there."
"We'll recover what we can."
"Why is this happening?"
Damon hesitated.
"I don't know yet."
For once, she believed him.
At the mansion, Evelyn was waiting in the entrance hall.
The moment she saw Delaney, she began crying.
"Oh, sweetheart."
Delaney allowed the older woman to embrace her.
Damon watched silently.
Then Frank approached.
"We found something in her apartment."
He handed Damon a sealed evidence photograph.
Inside the smashed jewelry box had been a small brass key.
Attached was a handwritten tag.
Bianchi Family Trust.
Vault 17.
Damon stared.
Then looked toward Evelyn.
"Mother, what is Vault Seventeen?"
Evelyn's lips trembled.
May you like
She whispered the answer.
"It's where Margaret hid the evidence that could destroy our family."
