Chapter 2 - The Hidden Compartment
I stared at the blinking cursor on the security monitor in complete disbelief.
Someone inside my house had turned off the cameras to let a murderer onto my property.
I sprinted back upstairs to the master bedroom, my mind racing with terrifying possibilities.
Annie was standing exactly where I had left her, keeping a watchful eye on the sleeping twins.
I grabbed her by the arm and pulled her into the adjoining bathroom, shutting the door quietly.
I demanded to know who else had been inside the house today.
She swore that she was the only one here, other than my personal head of security, Marcus.
Marcus had been my most trusted friend for a decade, the man who built Morrison Dynamics alongside me.
I refused to believe Marcus would ever betray my family.
Annie noticed my hesitation and told me she had found something while cleaning my wife’s closet earlier that morning.
She led me out of the bathroom and over to Lauren’s massive cedar walk-in closet.
She knelt down and pulled out an old wooden jewelry box that Lauren had owned since college.
Annie pressed a hidden latch on the bottom, revealing a secret compartment I never knew existed.
Inside the compartment was a prepaid burner phone and a small silver USB drive.
I reached out with trembling fingers and picked up the drive.
Before I could plug it into my laptop, the intercom on the bedroom wall crackled to life.
Marcus’s voice echoed through the speaker, sounding strangely tense and out of breath.
He said he was standing at the front door and needed to speak with me immediately.
I pressed the intercom button and told him I would be right down.
When I released the button, Annie looked at me with pure panic in her eyes.
She whispered that Marcus wasn't standing at the front door.
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She pointed to the digital security panel on the wall, which showed the location of active key fobs in the house.
Marcus’s signal was already directly outside my bedroom door.
