A deathly silence fell over the bedroom.
In a fraction of a second, the thick ice in Barrett's eyes cracked. Audrey clearly caught a flash of desperate, starving yearning in his gaze. But the scars she had left on him were too deep, too painful.
It's a trap, his battered heart screamed. She was just acting. She wanted him to lower the estate's security.
Almost instantly, the expression on Barrett's face froze back to absolute zero. He took a massive step backward, drawing an unbridgeable chasm between them.
"You're wasting your time," Barrett said. His voice returned to absolute zero. The deadness in his tone hurt far more than his rage.
He turned the brass door handle. The mechanical click sounded incredibly loud in the tense, heavy silence of the bedroom.
Panic flared in Audrey's chest. She stepped forward quickly, her fingers grabbing the fabric of his sleeve.
"Please," Audrey begged, her voice carrying genuine panic. "Don't leave me alone tonight. Barrett, please."
Barrett stopped. He turned his head, looking at her desperate grip on his sleeve. His paranoid mind twisted her vulnerability into a tactic. He interpreted her panic as a fear that her grand escape plan was failing.
He violently jerked his arm, forcefully breaking free from her. Her fingers slipped off the wool fabric. His expression hardened into impenetrable stone.
"The perimeter guards have been doubled," Barrett issued his final, chilling warning. "Any attempt to leave this estate tonight will result in Carl's immediate, total financial ruin. I will crush his family by morning."
Audrey opened her mouth to protest. She wanted to scream that she didn't care if Carl burned in hell. She wanted to tell him to go ahead and destroy Carl.
But Barrett didn't give her the chance.
He took a step out into the brightly lit hallway. The harsh light cast a long, dark shadow into the dim bedroom, cutting right across Audrey's feet.
He pulled the heavy oak door shut behind him. The dull thud carried a sickening sense of finality.
Audrey stood frozen. Then, she heard it. The distinct, heavy metallic scrape of the deadbolt sliding into the lock from the outside.
He had completely sealed her inside the master suite.
Audrey rushed to the door. She pressed her palms flat against the cool, smooth wood. She pressed her ear to the door, listening to his heavy, measured footsteps fading down the long hallway until there was only silence.
Her legs gave out. Audrey slid down the smooth wooden door, slumping onto the floor. She pulled her knees to her chest.
The reality of this monumental task pressed heavily onto her shoulders like a mountain. Words were entirely useless against Barrett's trauma. She was the one who had traumatized him. She had to prove her loyalty through undeniable, practical actions.
Audrey pushed herself up from the floor. She wiped away a stray tear with the back of her hand. Her expression shifted from sorrow to cold, hard determination.
She turned her gaze toward the massive walk-in closet on the other side of the room. She decided that her first action must be to erase the physical evidence of her past rebellion.
