“She is trying to lure you out of this room.”

“She wants to separate us.”

“We should stay here, where the glass is reinforced.”

“We should wait for the police.”

“The police will take forty minutes to get through the outer gates, Celeste,” Alexander said.

“And you seem very eager to keep us in one place.”

He stepped toward me, his tall frame casting a long shadow over the table.

“The music room is on the other side of the courtyard,” he said.

“The courtyard is currently exposed.”

“The security cameras there are dead.”

“I am going with you,” he added.

“No, Father,” Ethan said, his voice rising in panic.

“Do not leave me.”

Alexander knelt down to his son’s eye level.

“You are staying here with Marcus’s men, Ethan,” he said gently.

“They will protect you.”

“I will be back in five minutes.”

He stood up and looked at me.

“Lead the way, Elena.”

I nodded, my hand reaching into my apron pocket where my master keycard was kept.

The hallway outside was pitch black.

Only the faint red glow of the exit signs illuminated the long, carpeted corridor.