Chapter 6 - THE UNHOLY ALLIANCE
The click of the rifle bolt echoed like thunder in the silent room.
My hands clenched into tight fists at my sides.
Everything made a sickening kind of sense now.
Why Margaret was always so protective of the nursery.
Why she guarded the household with such fanatical intensity.
She wasn't just an employee.
She was Sarah's co-conspirator.
And I was the gullible fool funding their entire operation.
"You staged the whole thing," I said, my voice dangerously low.
"The nanny warnings."
"The secret meetings."
"You wanted me to find Lena playing with the boys."
Margaret smiled, crossing her arms over her chest.
"Guilty as charged, Mr. Caldwell," Margaret purred.
"We needed a scapegoat."
"When the police eventually investigate this house, we planned to pin the entire kidnapping and child endangerment scheme on Miss Morales."
Lena pulled Nico and Noah tighter against her.
"You planned to frame me?" Lena gasped, her voice trembling with rage.
"Brilliant, isn't it?" Sarah added, her eyes locked on me through the rifle scope.
"A young, desperate nanny goes rogue, locks the billionaire's wife in the basement, and terrorizes the twins."
"The authorities buy it instantly."
"And Margaret and I slip away to Switzerland with fifty million dollars from your corporate offshore accounts."
My blood ran cold.
"My offshore accounts?" I asked.
"You had access?"
Sarah tapped the side of her head.
"I memorized your master encryption keys years before the fake crash, Ethan."
"Every penny you earned is already being transferred as we speak."
"You're completely ruined."
She thought she had won.
She thought holding the rifle gave her absolute control.
She didn't know about the contingency plan I set up with my legal team last week.
Any unauthorized transfer over one million dollars triggered an immediate freeze and a silent alarm directly to federal authorities.
Federal agents were likely already surrounding the perimeter of the estate.
I just needed to stall them.
"You're delusional, Sarah," I said, taking a slow step forward.
"Federal marshals are already on their way."
Sarah laughed.
A shrill, manic sound.
"Don't lie to me, Ethan!"
"No one knows you're here!"
"You told your driver you were flying to Geneva!"
"I never boarded the plane, Sarah," I replied calmly, stepping closer.
"And my chief of security tracks my phone's encrypted GPS twenty-four hours a day."
Sarah's eyes flickered with a sudden flash of doubt.
She glanced at Margaret.
Margaret's smug smile faltered for a fraction of a second.
"She's bluffing," Margaret hissed, stepping forward and grabbing the barrel of Sarah's rifle.
"Shoot him, Sarah!"
"End it now before the police actually show up!"
Sarah's finger hovered over the trigger.
Her breathing grew heavy, erratic.
The tension in the room stretched like a taut rubber band, ready to snap at any second.
Lena whispered something to Nico.
The little boy suddenly pointed past Sarah and shrieked at the top of his lungs.
"Look! Bad Nana has a mouse!"
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Margaret whipped her head around in panic, screaming, "Where?!"
That single second of distraction was all I needed.
