Chapter 4 - Flight Through the Shadows
Panic flickered across Victor’s face for the first time. The smooth, calculated execution had
devolved into chaos. He fired a wild shot that shattered a nearby vase into a thousand glittering
shards, but Leo had already scrambled into the open casket, pulling his mother upward with a surge
of superhuman strength born of sheer terror.
"Run, Mom! Run!" Leo shouted, dragging Elena toward the narrowing gap of the massive steel
doors. Elena, weak and unsteady from the heavy sedatives still lingering in her bloodstream, leaned
heavily on her son’s shoulder. Together, they squeezed through the heavy portal just as Victor lunged
forward, his outstretched fingers missing Elena’s silk hem by mere inches.
They burst out into the torrential midnight rain of the estate's sprawling sculpture gardens. The
cold downpour instantly soaked their formal attire, sticking the white silk to Elena's frame and
turning Leo's bow tie into a soggy knot. Behind them, Victor’s angry shouts echoed through the
manicured hedges, accompanied by the ferocious barking of guard dogs breaking free from their
kennels. "Find them! Tear the estate apart! Nobody leaves alive!" Victor roared into his encrypted
May you like
radio, summoning his private security detail to hunt down the heirs to the Vance dynasty.
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