He Came Home Early and Found a Pet Collar Around His 6-Year-Old Son’s Neck. His New Wife Called It “Discipline”—Until Her Own Mother’s Phone Revealed What They Had Planned Before the Party Even Began. / Chapter 57 / 80

Chapter 57 - Fire in the Ballroom

The detonation beneath the north wing was catastrophic.

The subterranean gas main ruptured in a violent chain reaction, sending an orange shockwave of fire tearing upward through the foundation. The reinforced observation glass separating Julian and Daniel didn't shatter—it fractured into a spiderweb of millions of crystalline lines, throwing Julian and Eleanor backward onto the marble floor of the corridor above.

The laboratory went pitch black as the main generators blew, instantly replaced by the strobe of emergency red emergency lights and the deafening screech of fire klaxons.

Daniel didn't hesitate. Shielding Mason with his entire body, he kicked through the weakened emergency fire door leading to the estate's mechanical lift shaft.

"Hold onto my neck, Mason! Hold on with both hands and don't let go!" Daniel shouted over the roar of the blaze.

The six-year-old boy, the fog in his mind shattered by the terror of the explosion, wrapped his small arms around Daniel’s neck with desperate, white-knuckled strength. "Daddy! Daddy, don't leave me!"

"Never again, baby! Never again!"

Daniel leaped onto the counterweight cable of the mechanical freight elevator, his heavy tactical gloves smoking from friction as he slid down thirty feet into the subterranean access tunnels beneath the lake level.

Behind them, secondary explosions tore through the Grand Ballroom above. The priceless chandeliers crashed onto the parquet floors, raining crystal shards upon the screaming, panicking members of the Sovereign’s inner circle. The high-society masquerade had dissolved into pure primal chaos.

Julian Sterling staggered to his feet, blood streaming from a jagged cut across his cheek, his bespoke velvet jacket charred and covered in plaster dust. Eleanor Vance lay unconscious beside the fractured observation window, her neck pinned beneath a fallen mahogany beam.

Julian ignored her. His eyes were wide with psychotic fury. He snatched an assault rifle from the hands of a wounded contractor.

"Seal the lake tunnels!" Julian roared into his radio. "Deploy the hunt team! If Vance reaches the highway, kill them both! I would rather have the boy dead than let that gutter-born soldier humiliate us!"

Down in the concrete aqueducts beneath the estate, water was already flooding the floorboards from ruptured lakeside pipes. Daniel ran through knee-deep water, Mason clutched securely against his chest with his left arm, his suppressed P226 ready in his right.

Gunfire erupted from the tunnel intersection ahead.

Two Sovereign mercenaries appeared, tactical lights blindingly bright as they cut through the steam. Daniel dove behind an iron support stanchion, shielding Mason beneath his Kevlar vest.

"Mason, stay down!"

Daniel leaned out, firing three rapid shots. The first mercenary collapsed into the rushing water with a splash. The second mercenary returned fire, the high-velocity rounds biting chunks of concrete inches from Daniel’s head. Daniel dropped low, sliding through the water across the tunnel floor, firing upward from an impossible angle. The round caught the second operative beneath his tactical helmet, dropping him instantly.

Daniel scooped Mason back into his arms without breaking stride, sprinting toward the rusted iron spillway gates that emptied into the rocky shores of Lake Geneva.

Safety was fifty yards away. But as Daniel kicked open the heavy iron gate, the cold night air rushing into his lungs, a blinding spotlight snapped on from the darkness of the lake.