CHAPTER 11: THE BALLROOM REVOLTS
Outside the security office, the charity auction was collapsing.
Guests demanded to leave.
Reporters had gathered beyond the hotel entrance.
Someone had uploaded a video of Ethan striking the auction block and accusing the Vales of theft.
Within minutes, millions of people had seen it.
Bianca watched the comments appear on her phone.
VALE FOUNDATION FRAUD?
WHO IS SAMUEL MERCER?
WHY WAS A CHILD LOCKED IN THE HOTEL?
She looked toward Ava.
The girl sat beside Arthur Bell, holding one shoe in her lap.
For the first time that evening, Bianca felt ashamed.
She remembered laughing when Ava cried.
She had assumed the child was spoiled.
She had never asked why she was frightened.
Bianca crouched in front of her.
“I’m sorry.”
Ava looked at her quietly.
“For what?”
Bianca struggled to answer.
“For laughing.”
“My daddy says people laugh when they don’t want others to see they’re scared.”
Bianca looked toward Eleanor.
“Your father is probably right.”
Arthur opened his eyes.
“Miss Vale.”
Bianca leaned closer.
“The bat,” he whispered. “Dane took it downstairs.”
“Where?”
“Preparation vault.”
Bianca stood.
Her grandmother blocked the corridor.
“You are coming home.”
“No.”
Eleanor’s eyes hardened.
“This family gave you everything.”
“And what did we take from everyone else?”
Eleanor grabbed Bianca’s wrist.
“Be very careful.”
Bianca pulled away.
The ballroom guests had begun chanting for the doors to be opened.
Eleanor looked toward the main entrance.
Her control was disappearing.
Then every television screen in the ballroom switched on.
A grainy video appeared.
Samuel Mercer stood inside an underground room.
The date in the corner was from three weeks earlier.
He looked older and thinner, but unmistakably alive.
“My name is Samuel Mercer,” he said. “If this recording is playing publicly, then the Vale family has lost control of the Midnight Bat.”
Eleanor stared at the screen in horror.
Samuel continued.
“Do not trust Conrad. Do not trust Eleanor. And Ethan…”
He looked directly into the camera.
“Do not bring Ava to Halcyon Field.”
The screen went black.
At that exact moment, Ava noticed something beneath her chair.
A small white envelope.
May you like
Her name was written across it.
Inside was a photograph of her sleeping in her own bedroom.
