Chapter 6 - THE GATEKEEPER’S FALL
We arrived at Cedar Ridge Lane just as the sun was beginning to bleed through the clouds.
The guard was gone.
His black umbrella lay abandoned on the gravel,
a discarded relic of the night before.
The gates were still shut,
but I had the master override key in my hand.
It was a small,
silver disc that my mother had given me on my eighteenth birthday.
“Only use this in an emergency,”
she had said.
“When the walls are no longer your friends.”
I stepped out of the car,
feeling the damp air on my skin.
I pressed the disc against the sensor.
The heavy iron gates groaned,
then swung open with a slow,
deliberate grace.
It felt like the mouth of a giant opening to let me in.
We drove up the long,
winding driveway.
The house looked different in the morning light.
It looked tired.
It looked betrayed.
I saw the guest house in the distance.
The lights were off.
Grant’s sister,
Sarah,
was standing on the porch,
wrapped in a blanket.
She looked confused and scared.
She saw our car and started to walk toward us,
but Nora rolled down the window and gave her a look that stopped her in her tracks.
“Don’t even think about it,
Sarah,”
Nora shouted.
“The police are five minutes behind us.”
Sarah froze,
her mouth hanging open.
She had spent her life living off my generosity,
and now she was realizing the tap had run dry.
I didn't even look at her.
I focused on the front door.
I stepped out of the car and walked to the keypad.
I entered the master code.
The red light turned green.
“Welcome home,
Lena,”
the mechanical voice said.
I walked into the foyer.
The house was silent.
The air was stale.
I could smell Grant’s cologne,
that expensive,
musky scent he loved.
I walked to the kitchen and grabbed a bottle of water.
I took a long drink,
feeling the liquid cool my parched throat.
I looked at the basement door.
It was a heavy,
reinforced slab of oak.
Behind it lay the stairs to the vault.
I could hear a faint,
rhythmic thudding.
Grant was still alive.
He was still hitting the door.
I sat at the kitchen table and waited.
The sirens started a moment later,
a low wail that grew into a crescendo.
Blue and red lights danced against the walls of the dining room.
The cavalry had arrived.
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But I didn't need them to save me.
I had already saved myself.
