Chapter 6: Someone Let Him In

Security found something in the garden the next morning.

A radio earpiece, small and black, half buried in the dirt below Claire's window. The kind used by professionals who needed to stay in contact without being seen.

"He wasn't working alone," the head of security told Adrian. "Someone was talking him through this. Guiding him in real time."

Adrian turned the earpiece over in his hand, his face hard. "Then this wasn't random. He knew exactly where to go and how to get in."

Claire took the earpiece from him and studied it herself. "This isn't cheap equipment. Whoever paid for this had real money behind them."

"Or real access," Adrian said. "Money buys equipment. It doesn't buy knowing exactly which window belonged to you."

Claire's stomach turned at that. Someone had known which room she'd be sleeping in before she even knew it herself.

"So why haven't the actual police been here," she asked. "Not just your security team. Real police."

"I already tried that this morning," Adrian said. "Your father shut it down."

"He what?"

Adrian handed her his phone and called Richard back, putting it on speaker.

"Adrian, listen to me," Richard said, tense and fast. "If the police get involved now, this becomes public within hours. A gunman inside the Knight mansion, the night after the wedding. Every reporter in the city will want to know why, and once they start asking why, they'll find out Sophia is missing too. We lose all control the second that happens."

"Someone pointed a gun at my wife," Adrian said, his voice rising. "I don't care about control right now, Richard. I care about keeping her alive."

My wife. The words landed strangely in Claire's chest. Just hours ago he had stood in this same house and told her plainly that he never wanted a wife at all, not Sophia, not her, not anyone. Now the word came out of him without hesitation, sharp and protective, like it actually meant something to him. She didn't know what to do with the difference.

"So do I. But going public won't keep her alive. It will just make everyone involved move faster and get sloppier."

"Dad." Claire leaned toward the phone, unable to stay quiet any longer. "Someone pointed a gun at me last night. In a house I didn't even choose to live in. You don't get to decide this is still just about protecting a deal."

"Claire, I am not trying to protect a deal. I am trying to protect you and your sister both."

"Then let the people who are actually trained for this help," Claire said. "Whatever private security you and Adrian have been relying on clearly isn't working. Someone got in. Someone almost hurt me. I don't care about headlines right now. I care about staying alive long enough to find Sophia."

Richard was quiet for a moment. "I hear you. I do. I'm just terrified of what happens if this goes public."

"You keep saying that like it's proven. It isn't," Adrian said.

"It's the only guess either of us has right now," Richard said. "Unless you have a better one."

"My better one is that hiding this got someone into my house with a gun in the first place. Secrecy isn't protecting anyone, Richard. It's protecting whoever's responsible."

"That's not your call to make."

"It's exactly my call to make," Adrian said. "This happened in my home. To my wife. I'm calling someone I trust."

He ended the call before Richard could answer.

"I'm bringing in Detective Marsh," Adrian told Claire. "Quietly, not through the official channel your father would try to control. I want someone qualified looking at this, not just my own security team."

Marsh arrived within the hour. He listened without interrupting as Adrian laid out everything, the break in, the gun, the earpiece, Richard's insistence on silence. Marsh took notes, asked sharp, precise questions, and did not once suggest Adrian or Claire should try to work any of it out themselves.

"I'll take it from here," Marsh said. "Let my people handle the investigation side. You two focus on staying safe."

Once Marsh left to start his own inquiries, Adrian's head of security spent the day working through the estate's camera footage. Claire and Adrian waited in the study, doing little more than watching the door for updates.

The guard returned late in the afternoon.

"We found how he got in," he said. "He came through with the catering staff, hours before the ceremony. Uniform, credentials, all of it looked legitimate. But he was never actually employed by the catering company. We checked their real staff roster. His name isn't on it."

"Then someone got him added to the setup without the company even knowing," Adrian said.

"That's our read too."

"Find out who approved that catering company for the wedding in the first place," Adrian said. "Every name on that approval chain."

It took another hour. The guard came back with a single sheet of paper.

"Approved by Preston Vale," he said. "Guest referral, two weeks before the wedding."

Adrian went very still.

Claire looked between them. "Preston Vale. Isn't that the investor trying to take your company?"

"The same one," Adrian said slowly.

He did not say Vale did it. Claire watched him choose his words with visible care.

"It means he has a connection to whoever got that man inside my house," Adrian said. "Nothing more than that. Not yet."

"But it's something."

"It's something," Adrian agreed. "Enough to hand to Marsh and let him actually investigate it properly."

Adrian called Marsh and relayed everything. Marsh promised to look into Vale's movements and any connection to the catering company himself.

He called back that evening with an update neither of them expected.

"Vale's hosting some kind of charity event tonight," Marsh said. "A big one. Guests, press, the works. If I move on him now, in front of that many cameras, it becomes the story of the year by morning. Reporters will dig into everything, his business, your family, and it won't take long before someone starts asking where Sophia Bennett actually is."

"So what do we do," Adrian asked.

"We wait," Marsh said. "Quietly. Until it's safe to bring him in without the entire city watching."