The Waylen Company charity ball had stretched well into the night, its usual exuberance overshadowed by the late hour and the bitter, rain-soaked air outside. Most of the guests had already departed, but Adeline lingered in the west wing conference room, meticulously following up on the event's logistics. She thrived on the completion, the neatness of tying off loose ends, as if it gave her mind something to hold onto in the face of the evening's chaos.
A few floors below, Seraphina Wynn—never one to follow the crowd—had slipped out through a side door, seeking a moment of fresh air and solitude. Her heels clicked on the wet sidewalk, the hem of her golden wrap trailing behind her as she walked past her waiting driver, indifferent to the drizzle.
Neither woman would make it home that night.
The Cell
Adeline opened her eyes to the chill of stone beneath her and the distant thrum of water. Her wrists were tied behind her back, the coarse rope digging into her skin. She could not move for a moment. She didn't know where she was—only that the quiet was too heavy, too conscious.
A quiet movement alerted her.
Across the shadowy concrete room, a figure shifted.
Seraphina.
Her head lolled to the side, her makeup smudged, her expression groggy but slowly sharpening. She blinked against the dim light leaking through the boarded window, then met Adeline's eyes.
Seraphina (hoarsely): "Adeline?"
Adeline's heart thudded.
Adeline: "You're awake."
Seraphina shifted, winced. "Is this… someone's idea of a joke?"
Adeline: "Not a funny one."
They exchanged a long look. Neither woman had expected this. Especially not together.
Seraphina: "They said nothing. Just—grabbed me. I thought they were after… I don't know. Elias."
Adeline's stomach churned with the mention of the name. Her thoughts screamed.
She'd been abducted from the parking garage. No one had witnessed. No one would've noticed. She hadn't even responded to Nathan's text before she'd left.
Adeline: "They didn't get your phone, did they?"
Seraphina: (flatly) "They got everything."
The tension between them hung like a weight.