Chapter 11 - Trapped Beneath the Mansion
Mateo reached for the handle.
The door would not open.
Damian raised his pistol and aimed it toward the shelves.
“Victor, show yourself.”
A speaker crackled overhead.
“You always did enjoy giving orders, big brother.”
Elena moved closer to Sophia, who had insisted on following them downstairs despite everyone’s objections. Bruno stood in front of the child, growling toward a narrow passage behind the cabinets.
Damian glanced at his daughter.
“You were supposed to stay upstairs.”
Sophia swallowed.
“The man said I had to come.”
“What man?”
“The one in my dreams.”
A deep mechanical rumble rolled through the floor.
Mateo examined the wall.
“Gas line.”
Damian's face changed.
“Everyone cover your mouths. Find another exit.”
Victor’s voice returned through the speaker.
“You have five minutes. There is a ventilation system below the floor. Once it opens, the room will fill with gas.”
“Why don't you come down here and face me?” Damian shouted.
“Because I've learned from your mistakes. Never enter a room when you can make someone else do the dying.”
Elena scanned the shelves.
Her eyes stopped at a photograph of the mountain residence. Beneath it was a brass key attached to a strip of leather.
She pulled it free.
“There.”
Mateo tried the key in a small lock concealed behind a cabinet. A panel opened, revealing a narrow crawlspace.
“Go!” Damian ordered.
Rosa's absence suddenly struck him.
She had remained upstairs to call the authorities and protect the other staff. Now he could only hope that Victor had not reached her.
Elena guided Sophia into the passage, followed by Mateo. Damian went last.
Bruno refused to leave until Sophia called him.
The dog finally squeezed into the narrow space behind them.
They crawled through darkness until the passage opened into a storage cellar beneath the kitchen.
Damian emerged, coughing.
His phone immediately began to ring.
Rosa.
He answered.
“Where are you?”
“Safe,” she said. “I heard the alarm. The guards are evacuating the staff.”
“Victor is inside the mansion.”
“I know.”
“How?”
“Because he called me.”
Damian went still.
“What did he say?”
Rosa's voice trembled.
“He said he would exchange Sophia for the ledger. I told him he couldn't have it.”
Damian looked toward the eastern wing.
“What did you say to him?”
“I told him he would have to kill me first.”
For a moment, Damian could not speak.
Then the line went dead.
“Rosa?”
No answer.
He ran toward the kitchen.
They found Rosa in the main hall, surrounded by three armed men.
She stood with her hands raised, her face bruised, but she was alive.
Victor stood behind her.
He held a pistol against her head.
“Put your weapon down,” Victor told Damian.
Damian froze.
Sophia cried out.
“Uncle Victor, please!”
Victor’s gaze shifted toward the child.
For one fleeting second, something like regret appeared in his expression.
Then it vanished.
“You see, Damian? This is why family is such a dangerous weakness. You will destroy an empire for one little girl.”
Damian lowered his gun.
“You have what you wanted. The ledger is secured elsewhere. Let them go.”
Victor laughed.
“You still think this is about money?”
He gestured toward Elena.
“Ask your wife what she did to our father.”
Elena went pale.
Damian turned toward her.
“What is he talking about?”
Victor pressed the gun harder against Rosa's temple.
“Tell him.”
Elena closed her eyes.
“Your father discovered that Victor had been working with a rival organization. He planned to expose him and remove him from the family business.”
Damian looked at his brother.
“Is that true?”
Victor's expression hardened.
“He wanted to hand everything to you. You were his golden boy. The heir. The perfect son.”
“He was our father.”
“He was a tyrant who believed I was born to obey you.”
“You could have walked away.”
“And spent my life begging for scraps while you owned everything?”
Victor's voice cracked.
“You never had to fight for anything. You were given the company, the estate, the loyalty. Even when I saved your life, everyone praised you for surviving.”
Damian stared at him.
“You killed our father.”
Victor's silence answered.
Elena stepped forward.
“He didn't mean to kill him at first. He arranged the car accident to frighten him into surrendering control. But your father discovered the plan and refused.”
Victor's eyes burned.
“He should have signed the documents.”
“So you left him to die,” Damian whispered.
“I chose my future.”
“No,” Damian said. “You chose your greed.”
Victor shoved Rosa forward.
Then he raised his gun toward Sophia.
Everything happened at once.
Bruno lunged.
A gunshot thundered through the hall.
The dog struck Victor’s legs, knocking him backward. His pistol skidded across the marble.
Mateo tackled one of the armed men while Damian drove his shoulder into the second. Elena pulled Sophia behind a pillar.
Rosa scrambled toward her daughter.
Victor crawled across the floor, reaching for the fallen gun.
A second gunshot erupted from the staircase.
Victor stopped.
His hand fell limp beside the weapon.
At the top of the stairs stood Isabel Alvarez.
She held a smoking pistol.
Rosa stared at her sister.
Isabel's face was wet with tears.
“I’m sorry,” she whispered.
May you like
Then she turned the gun toward Damian.
“I was never supposed to let you survive.”
