Chapter 5 - The Locks Are Turned
At 1:15 PM, Ethan arrived back at the estate in his Mercedes, with Chloe sitting smugly in the passenger seat wearing my diamond tennis bracelet that had vanished from my vanity two weeks ago.
Ethan pulled up to the security gates and punched in his code.
BEEP-BEEP-BEEP. ACCESS DENIED.
He punched it again, harder. ACCESS DENIED.
Frustrated, he accelerated toward the visitor call box and hammered the intercom button. “Security! Open the gate! The keypad is malfunctioning!”
The camera lens on the gate pillar adjusted, and Marcus Kane’s voice came through the speaker:
“Mr. Ethan Vance. Your access to this property has been terminated pursuant to a court order issued by the County Superior Court. Your mother's personal effects have been placed at the guardhouse. You are instructed to vacate the perimeter immediately.”
Chloe gasped, clutching Ethan’s arm. “Ethan! What is happening?! You told me we were moving in today!”
Ethan slammed his steering wheel, veins bulging along his neck. “That crazy bitch changed the codes! She thinks she can play games with me?!”
He pulled out his phone and dialed my number, but the call was instantly routed to automated voicemail: “The number you are trying to reach has blocked incoming transmissions.”
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“She’s bluffing,” Ethan snarled, throwing his phone onto the dashboard. “She’s trying to intimidate me before the two o'clock executive board review. She forgets that without my expansion contracts in Chicago, Vance Global loses forty percent of its enterprise value. I’m going to have the board strip her of her family stipend today!”
He jammed the accelerator, burning rubber as he sped toward the corporate headquarters downtown.
