Chapter 10 - The Trespass
On the screen, the heavy double doors of the study opened silently. A figure glided into the room—Elena, wearing the exact cream-colored asymmetric dress she had on right now.
The recording captured her moving with swift, athletic precision, completely devoid of her usual graceful, relaxed posture. She walked straight past the main desk, heading directly toward the heavy oil portrait of Arthur’s grandfather hanging on the north wall.
The video clearly showed her hand swinging the painting aside, exposing the concealed biometric wall safe. She pulled out a small electronic bypass device, plugging it into the diagnostic port of the steel vault. She worked quickly, her hands steady, until the vault light clicked from red to green. The heavy door swung open. The surveillance footage captured her frantically turning over velvet boxes, pulling out deeds, land titles, and legal certificates, searching desperately for a single, specific item—and finding the safe entirely empty of what she sought.
