Chapter 5 - The Lockdown
A heavy, industrial hum resonated through the concrete walls of Villa Claire.
Instantly, bright floodlights erupted across the gallery, blinding the three figures standing at the bottom of the stairs.
Madison dropped her flashlight with a sharp gasp, shielding her eyes with her gloved hand. "What the—"
"Looking for this, Madison?" I called out from the second-floor balcony.
Her head snapped up.
Her face went pale as milk under the blinding white halogen lights. She looked like she had seen a ghost standing high above her on the glass bridge.
"Victoria?!" she shrieked, her voice cracking with terror. "How... how did you get here?!"
Chloe Vance took two steps back, her eyes wide with frantic panic. "You said she was in Bel-Air! You said she was washing tomato sauce off her face!"
"She was!" Madison screamed, turning on her accomplice. "I watched her drive toward her apartment!"
"You always were bad at math, sister," I said coldly, walking slowly along the glass railing, looking down at them like a judge delivering a sentence. "It takes twenty-four minutes if you don't care about speed limits."
The man in the hoodie didn't waste time talking. He reached into his coat and pulled out a black semi-automatic pistol, pointing it straight up at the balcony where I stood.
"Give us the master code!" he snarled, taking a step toward the stairs. "Give us the code to the vault, or I swear to God I'll put a bullet through you!"
"I wouldn't do that if I were you," I said calmly.
Before he could pull the trigger, a series of deafening, metallic thuds echoed through the house.
CLANG! CLANG! CLANG!
Heavy, reinforced steel hurricane shutters slammed down over every single glass window and exterior door on the ground floor.
The sliding terrace doors were sealed behind three-inch thick interlocking steel slates. The front entrance dropped a solid iron security gate. The glass atrium above me was instantly shielded by automated titanium shutters sliding across the roof.
The entire estate was sealed shut in three seconds flat.
The man in the hoodie spun around in absolute horror, pointing his gun at the steel wall that had just dropped over the terrace door. He lunged forward, kicking the metal with his heavy boot, but the steel didn't even dent.
"What did you do?!" Chloe screamed, her voice bordering on full-blown hysteria. "She locked us in! Madison, she locked us in!"
"Shut up!" Madison yelled, her composure completely shattering. She sprinted to the bottom of the grand staircase, gripping the mahogany handrail and staring up at me with venom in her eyes. "Victoria! Open these doors right now! You have no idea what you're messing with!"
"Oh, I think I do," I said, pulling out my phone and holding up the high-definition video I had just recorded. "I have you on video breaking into Grandmother's house. I have you on audio admitting to forging my digital signature. And I have Chloe discussing the theft of fifteen million dollars in offshore bearer bonds."
Chloe gasped, staggering backward until her spine hit the reinforced steel shutter. "No... no, no, no... my career... my license..."
"You ruined your own life, Chloe," I said coldly. "And Madison... you threw a plate of food in my face tonight because you thought you were entitled to everything Grandmother built. You thought I was weak because I chose to paint instead of fighting over spreadsheets in Grandfather's office."
Madison’s jaw clenched so hard her teeth clicked. "Grandmother gave you everything! She gave you this house! She gave you her art! She gave you her love! And what did she leave me?! A seat on a board of directors that Dad controls with an iron fist!"
"She left you what you deserved," I replied flatly. "Because she saw who you really were. She knew you were greedy, ungrateful, and cruel."
Suddenly, the heavy sound of police sirens began echoing from outside the estate, muffled by the thick steel shutters surrounding us.
Red and blue emergency lights flashed through the narrow ventilation grates near the high ceiling.
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The man in the hoodie panicked. He raised his gun toward the second-floor bridge again, his knuckles white against the grip. "Open the doors! Open them now, or I swear to God—"
"Drop the weapon!" a loud, amplified voice boomed through the estate's exterior public address system. "This is the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department! The perimeter is fully secured! Drop your weapons and put your hands on your heads!"
