Chapter 10 - Confrontation at the GateAt 4:30 PM, a yellow taxi pulled up to the outer iron gates of the estate.
Daniel stepped out, carrying his leather duffel bag. He tried his personal access code on the keypad, but the gate didn't budge. My security team had already wiped his clearance code from the system.
He banged his fist against the intercom speaker.
"Lauren! Open the gate! It's me!" his voice crackled through the speaker in my study.
I stood up, walked down the stairs, and stepped out onto the front porch. The autumn air had turned bitterly cold, dark clouds gathering overhead as a light drizzle began to fall.
I walked down the long paved driveway toward the iron gate, flanked by Arthur Vance and two security officers.
Daniel watched me approach through the black iron bars. He looked exhausted, his hair unkempt, his suit jacket wrinkled from the flight.
"Lauren, thank God," he said, reaching through the bars as if to touch my arm. "Please, open the gate. We need to sit down and talk about this like adults."
I stopped five feet away from the gate, keeping my hands tucked inside the pockets of my trench coat.
"You don't have access anymore, Daniel," I said softly.
"Lauren, come on!" he pleaded, his eyes wide with desperation. "I know my mom lost her temper yesterday, and I promise you she will apologize! I'll make her apologize on her knees if that's what it takes! And Nicole... Nicole made a terrible mistake, but she's young! If you press charges, she'll go to federal prison!"
"She committed a federal crime, Daniel," I said. "And so did your mother."
Daniel's face paled. "What are you talking about?"
I pulled a printed page from my coat pocket and pressed it against the iron bars for him to see—the transcript of the chat log between Diane and Nicole mentioning his name.
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Daniel stared at the paper, his eyes darting across the lines. The color completely drained from his face, leaving him looking like a ghost in the gray rain.
"You knew," I whispered, the realization settling heavily in my chest. "You didn't just know... you warned them that I was updating my security keys."
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