CHAPTER NINE:BEFORE IT'S TOO LATE

Emma couldn't sleep.

She'd been lying awake for hours, staring at the necklace on her dresser. The sapphire caught the moonlight, throwing blue shadows across the room.

Damien was asleep beside her. She could hear his breathing, steady and even. At some point after she'd told him about Tyler, he'd pulled her close and held her until she stopped shaking. Then he'd fallen asleep like that, like holding her was the easiest thing in the world.

She envied him for it.

Around two in the morning, Emma got out of bed carefully, trying not to wake him. She moved to the dresser and picked up the necklace.

It was heavier than it looked. The sapphire was cool against her palm. She'd worn it a few times now, but she'd never really examined it closely. It was just a piece of jewelry. Beautiful, expensive, nothing more.

She turned it over in her hands.

There was a small seam she'd never noticed before. Barely visible. She ran her thumb over it, feeling the edges. It wasn't damage. It was intentional.

Emma sat on the edge of the bed and worked at the seam with her fingernail. It was tight, probably sealed for decades. She kept working, patient, until finally she felt something give.

The seam widened just slightly.

She could see something inside. Small. Metal.

A voice cut through the darkness. "Don't move."

Emma spun around. A figure stood in the window, silhouetted against the night. Before she could process what was happening, the figure moved toward her.

"Give me the necklace," the voice said. Female. Urgent.

Emma's instinct was to run. Instead, she shoved the necklace under her pillow and backed away from the bed.

"No," she said.

The intruder lunged.

She was fast, but Emma was faster. She grabbed the lamp from the nightstand and threw it. The intruder dodged, but it bought Emma enough time to move toward the door.

The intruder reached for her arm. Emma twisted away, feeling fingernails rake across her skin. She opened her mouth to scream but a hand clamped over it.

That's when Damien woke up.

He was out of bed in seconds, moving like something primal had taken over. He grabbed the intruder and threw them against the wall with enough force to knock the wind out of them.

"Run," he said to Emma. "Get out."

Emma didn't run. Instead, she moved to the corner of the room, watching as Damien fought the intruder. It was quick and brutal. The intruder tried for the window, but Damien cut them off.

Then the intruder did something unexpected. They sprayed something in Damien's face. He staggered back, eyes watering, and the intruder bolted for the window.

Emma didn't think. She grabbed the heavy candlestick from the dresser and threw it. It didn't hit them, but it was close enough to make them hesitate.

In that moment of hesitation, Damien recovered. He grabbed the intruder's arm and twisted it behind their back. They fought hard, desperate, but Damien had leverage and rage.

"Let me go," the intruder gasped. "You don't understand."

"I understand enough," Damien said.

The intruder twisted one more time, managed to break free, and ran for the window. They jumped actually jumped from the second-story window and hit the ground running toward the gardens.

Damien started to follow but Emma grabbed his arm.

"Don't," she said. "Don't leave me."

He stopped. His chest was heaving, his face flushed with adrenaline. He looked at her like he was checking to make sure she was real, that she wasn't hurt.

"Are you okay?" he asked.

"I'm fine. Are you?"

His eye was starting to swell where the spray had hit. She could see him blinking hard, trying to clear his vision.

"We need to call the police," Emma said.

"No," Damien said immediately.

"Someone broke into our house and attacked us. We need to call"

"No police," he repeated. His voice was different. Harder. Like a switch had flipped. "Get the necklace."

Emma moved to the bed and pulled out the necklace from under the pillow. Her hands were shaking. She could still smell something on her skin perfume, expensive and floral. The intruder's perfume.

"What was that?" she asked. "Why would someone break in for a necklace?"

Damien took it from her and examined the seam she'd been working on. "You found the compartment."

"There's something inside. Something metal."

He worked at the seam with more force than she'd used. After a moment, a small panel popped open. Inside was something about the size of a thumb drive, but older. A tiny digital recorder.

Emma had never seen one before but she knew what it was.

"What is that?" she asked.

"Insurance," Damien said quietly. "My mother's insurance."

He moved to the study across the hall, Emma following. He found a laptop and connected the device. It took a moment for it to load. When it did, a single audio file appeared on the screen.

Damien hesitated before clicking it.

The audio was corrupted. There was static, then fragments of sound. A woman's voice, panicked.

"No. No, please don't..."

Then a crash. A sound like something breaking.

Then silence.

Damien's face had gone completely white.

"That's my mother," he said. His voice sounded hollow. "That's Katherine."

Emma couldn't breathe. "What happened to her?"

"She fell," Damien said. "From the balcony. It was ruled a suicide."

"But that doesn't sound like"

"I was there that night," Damien interrupted. "I saw it happen. But I can't remember. My mind just... blocked it out."

Emma moved closer to him. "We need to listen to the whole thing. We need to understand what happened."

Damien rewound the audio and clicked play again.

The corruption made it hard to hear. But there were words buried in the static. Screaming. Struggling. And then, clear as day, a man's voice.

"She was never meant to be here."

Then Katherine's scream. Then the crash.

Damien stood up abruptly and walked to the window. Emma could see his hands shaking.

"Someone killed her," Emma said quietly. "Your mother was murdered."

"Yes," Damien said. He still wasn't looking at her. "And I watched it happen and forgot."

Emma didn't know what to say. She thought about the intruder. About the familiar perfume. About why someone would break into their house in the middle of the night to steal this necklace.

"We need to figure out who did this," she said. "We need to listen to the rest of the audio. We need to—"

"We need to be careful," Damien said, finally turning to look at her. "Because whoever did this is still out there. And they just proved they're willing to kill for this necklace."

He looked at the small recorder in his hands like it was a bomb.

"And now that we know what's on it," he said, "they'll kill to keep us quiet."