Sophie whispered, “What does that mean?”
Vanessa looked at me again.
“Show them the rest.”
“There isn’t any rest.”
“Oh, yes.”
She smiled.
“
There is.
”
The security director frowned.
Vanessa pointed toward the drive.
“Folder seven.”
I looked at him.
He shook his head.
“There are only six folders.”
Vanessa’s smile disappeared.
“What?”
“Six.”
She stared at the flash drive.
Then at me.
“That isn’t my drive.”
The room seemed to tilt.
“What?”
“The drive you’re holding,” Vanessa whispered.
“It’s not mine.”
My fingers went numb.
Dad stepped closer.
“Claire?”
I looked at the drive.
It was black.
Ordinary.
The security team had recovered it near the administrative office.
Vanessa slowly removed one glove.
Her hand was trembling.
“My drive has a red mark beside the connector.”
The security director examined ours.
Nothing.
Vanessa whispered:
“Someone wanted you to find that.”
Nobody spoke.
Then every light in the ballroom went out.
Someone screamed.
The chandeliers died.
The screen vanished.
Emergency lights flickered red along the walls.
Dad grabbed my arm.
“Stay here.”
People shouted.
Chairs scraped.
Security radios erupted.
Then I heard Sophie.
“Claire!”
I turned toward her voice.
“Sophie?”
A crash.
Another scream.
The lights returned.
Daniel stood beside the head table.
Alone.
“Sophie?”
I looked around.
My sister was gone.
For the next four minutes, the Grand Aurelia became chaos.
Every exit was locked.
Security officers searched bathrooms, service corridors, kitchens, stairwells.
Guests were ordered to remain inside.
Dad called Sophie’s phone.
It rang.
From beneath the head table.
Her phone lay on the carpet.
Daniel picked it up.
His hands were shaking.
“Someone took her.”
Vanessa whispered, “No.”
I turned.
She was staring at the security screen.
The footage had returned.
A camera showed the service corridor outside the ballroom.
During the blackout, a woman in a wedding dress walked calmly toward the elevators.
Alone.
Sophie.
She wasn’t struggling.
She wasn’t running.
She pressed the elevator button.
Waited.
Then looked directly into the camera.
And smiled.
Daniel whispered:
“What the hell?”
The elevator doors opened.
Sophie stepped inside.
Before they closed, she raised one hand.
She was holding something.
A black flash drive.
With a red mark beside the connector.
Vanessa collapsed into a chair.
“No.”
I stared at the screen.
My heart hammered.
“Sophie has your drive?”
Vanessa didn’t answer.
I grabbed her shoulder.
“Why does my sister have your drive?”
Vanessa looked up at me.
And for the first time that night,
I saw genuine terror in her eyes
.
“Because,” she whispered, “your sister is the person who gave it to me.”
Daniel staggered backward.
“No.”
Vanessa’s gaze never left mine.
“Six months ago.”
My mouth went dry.
“She contacted me.”
“You’re lying.”
“She knew about the missing money.”
“You stole it.”
“I moved it.”
“That’s the same thing.”
“No.”
Vanessa stood.
“Claire, the twelve million was already gone when I discovered the accounts.”
I stared at her.
“What?”
“Someone had been siphoning money from Ashford Holdings for almost two years.”
“Marcus?”
“He helped conceal it.”
“Who took it?”
Vanessa looked toward the frozen image of Sophie on the screen.
