Chapter 4: The Escape and The Real Truth
At 3:00 AM, the Vance Manor was shrouded in heavy, suffocating silence. A violent thunderstorm had rolled in over the city, rain lashing against the floor-to-ceiling windows of the master estate.
Victoria sat in the dark by the window, watching the lightning illuminate the gated courtyard below. Her burner phone buzzed softly in her lap. A text message from Marcus.
[DNA MATCH CONFIRMED. 99.99% PROBABILITY OF MATERNITY. AND YOU WERE RIGHT ABOUT THE FIRE. ARSON INVESTIGATOR FOUND TRACES OF MILITARY-GRADE ACCELERANT. I HAVE THE EVIDENCE REPORT.]
Tears of vindication and fury streamed down Victoria’s face. She looked at her daughter sleeping peacefully under the heavy duvet.
For ten years, she had lived in a gilded cage, believing she was a broken, barren woman who had failed her family. But it had all been a monstrous, calculated conspiracy between her late father and her husband to control her inheritance!
Suddenly, heavy footsteps echoed in the hallway outside her suite.
It wasn't the slow, measured walk of the nighttime security guard. It was rushed. Agitated.
Victoria jumped up, rushing to the door just as the handle rattled. She locked the deadbolt, but a second later, a key slammed into the master lock from the outside.
"Open the door, Victoria!" Richard’s voice roared over the thunder, dropping all pretense of civility. "I know who the brat is! Sutton just ran the DNA!"
He’s acting early, Victoria realized with a jolt of panic. He’s not waiting for dawn!
"Maya! Wake up! Now!" Victoria hissed, running to the bed and pulling the child into her arms. She threw a heavy wool coat over Maya’s shoulders and slipped her own feet into riding boots.
Thump! Thump!
Richard slammed his shoulder against the mahogany door. The wood groaned under the pressure. "You think you can hide her from me?! If the board finds out she exists, my mergers are dead! I will not let a gutter-born brat take my company!"
"We have to go out the balcony!" Victoria told Maya, her voice steady despite the adrenaline coursing through her veins.
She pushed open the French doors leading to the private terrace. The wind and rain whipped around them instantly, drenching their clothes. Below the balcony was the lower roof of the conservatory, leading down to the rose gardens and the back perimeter wall.
CRACK! The bedroom door splintered open behind them.
Richard stumbled into the dark bedroom, his eyes wild, a heavy silver fireplace poker gripped in his right hand. "Victoria!"
"Jump, Maya! To the lower roof! Now!" Victoria screamed.
Without hesitating, the ten-year-old girl leaped over the stone balustrade, landing safely on the sloped glass and metal roof of the conservatory three feet below. Victoria scrambled over the railing right after her, her hands slipping on the wet stone.
"You crazy bitch!" Richard shouted, rushing to the balcony railing. He reached out, his fingers brushing the fabric of Victoria’s coat, but she wrenched herself free, sliding down the wet conservatory roof alongside her daughter.
They hit the muddy lawn hard. Victoria gasped as pain shot up her ankle, but she ignored it, grabbing Maya’s hand and running blindly through the pouring rain toward the eastern service gate.
Alarms began to blare across the estate—piercing, red sirens cutting through the thunderstorm. Spotlights from the security towers swept across the manicured lawns.
"There! Stop them!" a bodyguard shouted from the patio terrace.
"Keep running, Maya! Do not look back!" Victoria cried out, her lungs burning as they sprinted through the rose bushes, thorns tearing at her face and hands.
They reached the heavy iron service gate at the edge of the property. Victoria pulled out her master override keycard with trembling, mud-slicked fingers and slapped it against the scanner.
BEEP-BEEP. RED LIGHT.
"No, no, no!" Victoria sobbed, slapping the card again. Richard had already deactivated her security clearance from the main control room! They were trapped inside the walls!
Behind them, the beam of a high-powered flashlight pierced the dark garden, moving rapidly toward them. Footsteps splashed heavily in the mud.
"You have nowhere to go, Victoria!" Richard’s voice echoed through the rain, cold and triumphant. "The gates are sealed! Hand over the girl, and I'll tell the press she attacked you and ran away. Play the grieving mother again! You're so good at it!"
Maya clung to Victoria’s leg, sobbing in terror. Victoria turned around, standing her ground in front of the locked iron gate, shielding her daughter with her own body. She had nothing left to fight with except her bare hands.
Then, through the darkness of the alleyway outside the iron gate, a pair of blinding headlights suddenly flashed on. A heavy black truck engine roared.
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CRASH!
The front bumper of a reinforced steel Dodge Ram slammed violently into the iron service gate from the outside, ripping the electronic lock right out of the brickwork and throwing the heavy metal doors wide open!
