Chapter 18 - The High Stakes of Survival
I didn't wait for him to reach me.
I grabbed the heavy,
broken mirror frame from the vanity and swung it with every ounce of rage I had stored over the last three years.
The glass shattered further,
striking him across the face and sending him stumbling back.
I didn't look to see the damage;
I bolted for the hallway,
my heart screaming in my chest.
I didn't go for the stairs;
I knew he’d catch me there.
Instead,
I went for the laundry chute,
a relic of the house’s old architecture that Ethan had never bothered to seal.
I threw myself into the dark opening,
the smooth metal sliding against my clothes as I tumbled down into the basement.
I landed hard on a pile of dirty linens,
the air knocked out of me,
but I didn't stop.
I scrambled toward the small basement window,
the one that led to the garden.
I could hear his heavy footsteps on the floor above,
searching for where I had vanished.
I kicked the window,
the glass breaking outward,
and dragged myself through the narrow opening,
the thorns of the rosebushes tearing at my skin.
I ran for the car,
fumbling with the keys,
my breath coming in ragged gasps.
I threw the car into reverse just as the man emerged from the front door,
a suppressed pistol in his hand.
Phut. Phut.
The bullets sparked against the hood of the car,
but I didn't slow down.
I sped out of the driveway,
the tires screeching,
leaving the House of Vance and the shadow of death behind.
I drove until I reached the city center,
where the crowds provided a different kind of armor.
I found a public library,
a place of quiet and safety,
and sat at a computer in the corner.
I inserted the micro-SD card,
my hands finally beginning to shake with the aftershock of the encounter.
The files opened instantly.
It wasn't just bank accounts.
It was a map of the entire organization.
The "investors" weren't just criminals;
they were a shadow government of corporate greed.
And at the top of the list,
the man who had orchestrated everything,
wasn't Ethan.
It was the Chairman of Vance Global himself.
The man who had supposedly ordered the audit.
The realization hit me like a physical weight.
The audit hadn't been an attempt to catch Ethan;
it had been a way to find where he had hidden the money and the evidence before the feds could get to it.
Ethan had been trying to steal from his own boss,
and I was the pawn caught in the middle of a war between two monsters.
I knew then that I couldn't trust the police.
I couldn't trust Arthur.
I could only trust the one person who had been discarded by the system before I was.
I picked up the phone and called Elena.
"I have the key,"
I said,
when she answered.
"And I know who’s at the top."
"Then it’s time to stop running,
Mabel,"
May you like
she said.
"And start burning the house down."
