Chapter 4 - The Locked Drawer
Six months into the suffocating, silent contract marriage, the massive penthouse was completely empty.
Reed was in Tokyo for a week-long corporate acquisition. Lucia, desperate to feel useful in the massive, sterile apartment, decided to clean the one room the maids were strictly forbidden from entering: Reed's private, heavily secured home office.
The room was a dark, intimidating sanctuary of leather and mahogany.
While dusting the heavy executive desk, Lucia accidentally bumped her hip against the bottom drawer. It didn't open. It was secured with a heavy biometric lock. Lucia frowned, her curiosity suddenly peaking. She had seen Reed open it once using a specific numerical override code.
With trembling fingers, she typed the six digits into the keypad. The heavy drawer clicked open.
Lucia expected to find highly confidential corporate mergers, offshore bank accounts, or maybe even blackmail files against a rival CEO.
Instead, the drawer was completely empty, except for a single, worn leather sketchbook.
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The cinematic realism of the suffocating silence completely paralyzed the room. Lucia slowly reached down and pulled the heavy sketchbook onto the desk. She recognized the worn leather cover instantly. It was the exact sketchbook she had lost during her final year of architecture school five years ago.
👉 Lucia flipped open the book, entirely unprepared for the massive, impossible secret staring back at her.
