The Rope Above Blackwood Bay
Chapter 01 - The Rope Above Blackwood Bay
Claire Bennett’s hands were slipping.
Thirty feet below her, the dark water of Blackwood Bay reflected the lights of Hawthorne Manor. Above her, a thick rope stretched over the glass balcony where the housekeeper, Rosa Alvarez, held it with both hands.
“Don’t let go!” Rosa shouted.
Claire looked up—and saw Evelyn Hawthorne standing behind Rosa in a silver robe.
The seventy-year-old matriarch was holding a kitchen knife.
For one frozen second, Claire believed Evelyn had come to help. Then the older woman pressed the blade against the rope.
“You should have stayed out of family business,” Evelyn said.
Claire’s heart pounded. She was wearing only a white nightdress and had one arm wrapped around the rope. In her other hand, she clutched a small waterproof case she had retrieved from beneath the balcony ledge.
Inside that case was the truth about the Hawthorne Children’s Foundation.
“Mrs. Hawthorne, stop!” Rosa cried.
Evelyn shoved the housekeeper aside and began sawing through the rope. Fibers snapped one by one.
Claire screamed for her husband.
Nathan Hawthorne burst through the bedroom doors wearing black. He took in the scene—the knife, the fraying rope, Rosa struggling to hold Claire’s weight—and pulled out his phone.
Evelyn stared at him. “Put that down.”
Nathan pressed record.
“Step away from the rope, Mother.”
“She broke into your father’s private files,” Evelyn said. “She has been manipulating you since the day she entered this house.”
Another strand split.
Rosa dropped to her knees and wrapped the rope around her forearms. Nathan rushed forward, grabbed it with one hand, and aimed the phone with the other.
Claire swung beneath the balcony. The waterproof case struck the glass railing but remained locked around her wrist.
“Pull!” Nathan shouted.
Together, he and Rosa dragged Claire high enough for her fingers to catch the ledge. Nathan leaned over, seized her arm, and pulled her onto the balcony just as the damaged section of rope snapped and fell into the darkness.
Claire collapsed against him, breathless but alive.
The knife slipped from Evelyn’s hand and landed on the marble floor.
Nathan’s phone was still recording.
Evelyn looked at the waterproof case attached to Claire’s wrist. Her face changed from anger to fear.
“What did you find?” Nathan asked.
Claire unlocked the case.
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Inside was a flash drive, an original trust seal, and a handwritten note from Nathan’s late father:
IF EVELYN FINDS THIS BEFORE YOU DO, THE FOUNDATION HAS ALREADY BEEN BETRAYED.
