Chapter 2 – THE ADMISSION TICKET

The heavy mahogany doors of the ballroom echoed with a definitive click as the security guards locked them from the inside.

Sixty elite guests sat frozen at their tables. The clinking of crystal glasses had stopped entirely.

Adrian Cole remained standing. His dark eyes never left Sabrina’s face. The charming, sophisticated billionaire the public knew was completely gone, replaced by a cold, calculating father who had just realized there was a predator in his house.

“A driver is waiting,” Adrian repeated, his voice dangerously quiet. “For my son.”

Sabrina smoothed the front of her red gown, her diamond engagement ring catching the light. She was trying to maintain control.

“Adrian, you’re overreacting,” she said, forcing a calm, reassuring tone. “Blackwood is the finest boarding school in New England. I pulled every string I had to get Noah admitted mid-semester. I wanted to surprise you. You’ve been so stressed with the hotel acquisitions—”

“You packed his bags,” Adrian interrupted. “You locked his room. You recorded him crying. And you scheduled a midnight pickup without telling me.”

“Because you wouldn’t have let him go!” Sabrina snapped, her mask slipping for a fraction of a second. “You coddle him, Adrian! He’s nine, and he’s terrified of his own shadow because this nanny holds his hand every time he breathes.”

She pointed a manicured finger at me.

I stood firmly in front of Noah, shielding him. “I hold his hand because you told him his mother never loved him,” I said.

The ballroom gasped.

Adrian stepped forward. “What did you say to my son?”

“Oh, please,” Sabrina rolled her eyes. “Evelyn is a liar. She’s a disgruntled employee who knows she’s obsolete.”

I didn’t argue. I simply reached into the deep pocket of my black uniform. When I had gone to Noah’s packed bags earlier that afternoon, I hadn’t just found his clothes. I had found the paperwork Sabrina had neatly tucked into the front pouch.

I pulled out a thick, cream-colored envelope and handed it to Adrian.

“This isn’t a boarding school brochure, Mr. Cole,” I said softly.

Adrian opened the envelope. He pulled out a glossy booklet and a signed admission ticket. As he read the cover, his face drained of color.

He looked up at Sabrina, sheer disbelief in his eyes.

“The Blackwood Psychiatric Institute,” Adrian read aloud.

Murmurs erupted around the room. Sabrina stepped back, her composure finally breaking.

“He needs clinical help, Adrian!” she insisted. “He talks to a music box! He’s disturbed!”

“It’s a juvenile asylum,” Adrian’s voice shook with rage. “You were sending my nine-year-old son to an inpatient psychiatric lock-down facility.”

“I was fixing your family!”

“By having him committed?” Adrian threw the booklet onto the engagement table. It landed next to the towering tiered cake. “How did you even arrange this? A facility like that requires parental consent. A medical proxy.”

Sabrina lifted her chin. She stopped backing away and instead crossed her arms. A cold, victorious smirk touched the corners of her lips.

“They do require a proxy,” Sabrina said smoothly. “Which is why I had you sign one.”

Adrian froze. “I never signed anything of the sort.”

“Last week,” Sabrina reminded him softly. “When we were going through the endless stacks of wedding vendor contracts. The florists, the caterers, the prenuptial amendments. I slipped the medical proxy into the pile. You signed it, Adrian. Giving me full temporary medical authority over Noah while you were on your business trip next week.”

My stomach turned to ice. She hadn’t just planned to send him away. She had legally engineered it so Adrian couldn’t stop it until it was too late.

“You tricked me,” Adrian whispered.

“I protected us,” Sabrina corrected.

Adrian turned to his lead security guard. “Cancel the engagement. Have her belongings packed and thrown onto the street. And tell that driver at the gate to leave immediately.”

“Sir,” the guard said, touching his earpiece. His face went completely white. “The driver isn’t at the gate anymore. He rammed the security barrier. He’s in the driveway.”

Before Adrian could speak, a massive shattering crash echoed from the front of the mansion.

Someone had just broken through the glass of the main foyer doors.

Heavy footsteps boomed in the hallway, heading straight for the locked ballroom.

“Dad!” Noah screamed, burying his face in my apron.

The heavy brass handles of the ballroom doors began to violently rattle.

Sabrina looked at Adrian, her smirk widening into something terrifying.

“You think a simple guard is going to stop the Blackwood extraction team?” she asked. “They don’t leave without their patient.”

And then, the heavy mahogany doors burst open, tearing the locks straight out of the wood.

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