PART4: Five minutes after our divorce was finalized, my ex-husband looked at me and said, “Take the girls

PART 4: THE MEN IN THE GARDEN
The red laser moved slowly across the bedroom wall.
Then it stopped on Abigail’s chest.
Daniel threw himself forward.
“Get down!”
I grabbed Abigail and pulled her to the floor as a gunshot cracked through the darkness.
The bullet struck the wooden wardrobe behind us.
Charlotte screamed beneath the blankets.
The security officer, Owen Price, slammed the bedroom door and pushed a heavy dresser in front of it.
“Keep everyone below the windows!”
Daniel crawled toward the broken glass.
“Don’t,” Owen warned. “They want you to look outside.”
The voice from the garden came again.
“You have sixty seconds, Penelope. Send Abigail out through the kitchen door.”
I wrapped both arms around my daughters.
“You are never getting near her!”

The man laughed.
“We don’t need to hurt the girl. We only need her mother to sign three documents.”
Daniel looked at me.
“That is what this has always been about.”
“What documents?”
“A custodial proxy, a transfer authorization, and a declaration saying you opened Daniel’s envelope before the divorce.”
“Why would that matter?”
“It would let Walter claim you used stolen information to manipulate the custody agreement,” Julian answered from the doorway. “He could challenge your control of the trust.”
A second laser appeared against the ceiling.
There were at least two armed men outside.
Perhaps more.
Owen pressed a button on his radio.
“Control, this is Price. Shots fired at Vance House. Two children inside. Send armed response immediately.”
Only static answered.
“They’re blocking the signal,” Daniel said.
Owen pulled out his phone.
“No service.”
The men had cut the power and jammed our communications.
But my phone was still connected to Victor’s call.
It lay on the carpet near the bed.
His voice came through the speaker.
“Penelope! Answer me!”
I reached for it.
“Victor, how many men did your father send?”
“I saw two leave the airfield, but there could be more.”
“Who are they?”
“One is Randall Pike. He runs security for the company.”
Owen’s expression changed.
“You know Pike?”
“Former military,” Victor said through the phone. “My father has used him for years whenever he wanted a problem handled quietly.”
“And the second man?”
“I don’t know.”
Another bullet struck the outer brick wall.
Charlotte buried her face against me.
Abigail did not cry.

She stared at the hole in the wardrobe as though she had aged several years in a few seconds.
“Mom,” she whispered, “are they doing this because I own the company?”
I wanted to protect her from the truth.
But the truth had already entered her bedroom with a bullet.
“They are doing this because a greedy man believes he can frighten us,” I said. “Owning something does not make this your fault.”
“Is Grandpa the greedy man?”
“Yes.”
She swallowed.
“Then I don’t want his company.”
Daniel moved closer.
“It isn’t his company, Abigail. That is the truth he is trying to hide.”
She looked at him.
“Are you Uncle Daniel?”
“Yes.”
“Is that your blood?”
He glanced down at his shirt.
“Some of it.”
“Are you going to die?”
“No.”
He said it with certainty, but the way he pressed one hand against his side told me he was not as confident as he sounded.
Margaret appeared behind Julian.
“There’s another way downstairs,” she said.
“What?”
“The old servants’ staircase. It begins inside the linen cupboard and leads to the cellar.”
Owen nodded.
“Take the children. Stay low and move quickly.”
“I’m not leaving you here.”
“My job is to keep you alive, Ms. Vance. Let me do it.”
Daniel tried to stand.
His knees buckled.
Julian caught him.
“You’re coming with us,” I said.
Daniel shook his head.
“I’ll slow you down.”
“You risked your life to reach this house. I’m not leaving you beside a broken window.”
The voice outside began counting.
“Ten.”
Owen moved the dresser just far enough for us to slip through the bedroom door.
“Nine.”
Margaret picked up Charlotte.
I held Abigail’s hand.
“Eight.”
Julian supported Daniel.
We entered the hallway.
“Seven.”
Owen stayed behind, his weapon trained toward the window.
“Six.”
We reached the linen cupboard.
Margaret pulled down two shelves and pressed a brass latch hidden behind them.
A narrow door opened into darkness.
“Five.”
We stepped onto the old wooden staircase.
“Four.”
Owen closed the hidden door behind us.
“Three.”
The kitchen door shattered downstairs.
Someone had entered the house.
Margaret carried Charlotte down the steep steps.
Julian and Daniel followed.
Abigail’s hand trembled inside mine, but she did not let go.
At the bottom, we entered the cellar.
Margaret pushed aside a tall wine rack, revealing a steel door.
“My grandmother installed this during the break-ins in the eighties,” I whispered.
“She improved it twenty years later,” Margaret replied. “Reinforced walls, separate ventilation, emergency telephone.”
She entered a code.
The door opened.
Inside was a small secure room containing bottled water, medical supplies, blankets, and an old landline telephone.
I lifted the receiver.
A dial tone sounded.
“The line is underground,” Margaret said. “They couldn’t cut it from outside.”
Julian called the police.
I helped Daniel sit against the wall while Margaret opened the medical kit.
His shirt had been torn near his ribs.
A deep cut ran along his side, but I saw no bullet wound.
“What happened to you?” I asked.
“Walter happened.”
“When?”
“Last night.”
Charlotte sat wrapped in a blanket beside Abigail.
Both girls listened silently.
I wanted to send them into another room, but the safe room had nowhere else to go.
Daniel noticed.
“I’ll tell you the parts they need to know,” he said.
He took a breath.
“Walter discovered that I copied the trust records. Pike came to my house and forced me into a car. They took me to a company warehouse near the river.”
“Is that where your blood got inside your car?”
“Yes. They wanted the police to believe I had either been murdered or fled after stealing money.”
“Why bring you to London?”
“Because the original trust amendment is inside box 317 at Westbridge Bank. The copy on the drive proves what Walter did, but the original document can remove him from the company permanently.”
“The brass key.”
Daniel nodded.
“Walter needed me to open the box. When I refused, he threatened Claire.”
“Is that what happened in Zurich?”
His eyes closed.
“Part of it.”
“What is the rest?”
Before he could answer, a loud crash echoed above us.
Charlotte flinched.