506 Grab My Hand

Staring at the old photograph, Katherine and Damien both had a bewildered expression. 

Deborah looked like she was in her early twenties and the man, Frederick Park, was probably a few years older than her. He looked young in the picture—William was a spitting image of his father. The picture was taken on the sidewalk—it was colored but not as vivid as the ones in the current times, however, one could clearly see their faces and expression. Deborah and Frederick stood close to each other while holding hands as they smiled for the camera. 

"Damien… Did you not know about this?" Katherine wondered.

Shaking his head, Damien couldn't take his eyes off the photo. "No. I didn't know they knew each other from way back."

"It's not only me, right? They sure looked like a couple here…"

"Yeah…" He was lost in his thoughts that he didn't know what else to say.

"Has your uncle always invited my aunt on every social occasion?"

"Well, I've seen her a few times at the parties that my family hosted. But now that I think about it, never the ones that were held in the mansion. I don't really pay much attention to the people who were much older than me. So, I just thought they were acquaintances because of common friends in the business or something. Who would have thought…"

"Okay…" Katherine composed herself and started picking the lock of another drawer. "Let's just continue searching for now. We'll discuss this later. Have you found anything on the shelves?"

"Nothing. They're just books and some trinkets."

Damien continued to hold the flashlight for Katherine and when she managed to open the locked drawer, they exchanged smiles. She rummaged through the things inside until she found a picture frame that had its front facing downwards. Her brows knitted as she pulled it out and found that it was actually a family picture of Katherine's family.

"Why is this here?" she wondered aloud. Then, a memory from a long time ago flashed in her head. 

It was that one afternoon that she visited her father in this office and gave him the picture frame with a photo of their family of three. She could vaguely remember how that afternoon turned out, but she was sure that it was a gift that she gave to her father when he became Young Corporation's CEO.

"What is it?" He peered over her shoulder and saw what she was looking at.

Katherine explained to him what it was and the two thought that it was indeed strange that they found the picture frame like that. It was as though Deborah didn't want to see it, but she didn't want to keep it out of the office either.

Placing the things they found on the desk, Katherine took pictures of them using her phone. And as she was putting them back to their places, she held the picture frame in her hands, wishing that she could keep it instead.

They didn't discover anything else in the office after that, so they decided to call it a night.

As they were locking up the office, Styles advised them to use the elevators again as it was faster. He was monitoring the screens and he thought there wasn't anything to be worried about.

So, Damien and Katherine got in the elevator and headed down to the basement parking. But just before they reached the second floor, Styles's panicked voice came through their comms. "Stop the car!" 

"Styles?" Damien pressed his earpiece, trying to understand what was happening.

"Stop it now!" 

Damien instinctively followed what he was told and pulled the elevator into a stop. 

Then, Styles added, "You can't go out through the basement. There's a guard just a few meters away from the elevator who appeared out of nowhere! I think he noticed the elevator's panel."

Katherine and Damien were shocked. They exchanged looks and then stared at the elevator door as if they were waiting for their doom.

Furious tapping was heard on their comms as Styles tried to work on something. "You have to get out of there," he said.

"How? We're in the middle of the elevator shaft!" she blurted, thinking that they were somewhere around the floor above the basement.

"I'll distract the guard for a bit. But you need to get out of there."

She stared at Damien and they both looked up at the ceiling. "There's no other way…" she said.

"Up," he told her almost instantly, his hands already ready to boost her up so she could pry the ceiling hole open. Katherine didn't waste time—she stepped onto his open palms and he hoisted her. She felt around the ceiling until a mechanism was activated, causing a cover to pop open.

"You go first so you can pull me up," she said. Then, she hopped back down and watched as Damien expertly kicked the handrail and pushed himself up through the opening on the ceiling. When he was out of the elevator, he stuck his hand down for her saying, "Grab my hand."

Katherine pushed the button to get the elevator running again. In the next second, she swiftly followed how Damien kicked the rail earlier, and then she grabbed his arm. Their hands gripped each other's arm tightly while he pulled her up.

The elevator car reached the basement floor just as she managed to escape and close the cover of the ceiling hole. When the doors opened, the guard stood right outside with an extremely pale face as he stared in shock at the empty elevator.

The guard's radio had a loud static sound and a woman's ghostly voice could be heard muttering incomprehensible words.

"Wh-who's there?" he stuttered, his eyes scanning the entire interior of the elevator car. He swallowed when a gust of wind swept against his back, making him shiver. He stepped inside, not knowing what to expect.

Meanwhile, Katherine and Damien were crouched on the roof of the car as they tried not to make a sound. They couldn't see what was happening inside the elevator, but they knew that the guard was in there.

As if their already tense situation wasn't enough, Katherine loudly sneezed suddenly and without warning.