She realized with mounting horror that the phone call inviting her here had never been an act of kindness, but rather a carefully laid trap to retrieve the missing documents. Marcus extended an open hand toward her, demanding the file back with a chillingly polite smile that didn’t reach his dead,“Hand it over, Emily, and maybe we can pretend none of this ever happened,” Marcus warned, his voice dangerously soft as he closed the remaining distance between them. Instead of backing down, adrenaline overrode Emily’s fear, and she grabbed a heavy glass paperweight from the desk, raising it defensively as her eyes locked onto his. 
Before Marcus could lunge forward to grab the file, the office telephone on the desk suddenly began to ring loudly, piercing the tense silence of the room and startling them both. Marcus hesitated for a fraction of a second, glancing toward the blinking light on the console while Emily used the sudden distraction to dart toward the corner window. 
She frantically yanked the heavy window open just as Marcus lunged forward with a furious snarl, his fingers grazing the hem of her jacket as she scrambled out onto the narrow concrete ledge high above the pouring rain. As she balanced precariously in the wind, the phone continued to ring relentlessly behind her, and the caller ID screen lit up with a name that made her blood run entirely cold: it was her sister Sarah calling from the lobby downstairs. 
