Chapter 8 - The Tunnel Beneath the Hearth
The dining room was a warzone of smoke, flying glass, and screaming shadows.
Arthur dragged the bleeding lawyer, Julian Vance, across the carpet toward the grand fireplace, while Evelyn kept low, dodging the terrifying whiz of high-caliber rounds tearing through the walls.
Marcus tried to bolt for the main hallway doors, but a bullet struck the floorboards right between his feet, sending sharp wooden splinters into his face. He shrieked, falling back and crawling toward Arthur on his hands and knees.
"Who is shooting at us?!" Marcus wept, blood dripping from a scratch on his forehead. "Helena, who did you hire?!"
Helena was slumping against the marble pillar, her hands covered in white dust, a terrified, vacant smile on her lips. "The Director," she whispered softly. "The man who bought the shipping lines... he said if the trust fell apart, no Sterling could be left alive to claim the debt..."
"The shipping lines!" Arthur gasped, looking at Evelyn. "The foreign cartel!"
"We can't stay here!" Evelyn yelled over the deafening sound of another shot shattering the chandelier overhead. Crystal droplets rained down like deadly hail. "The front doors are pinned down! We have to use the escape tunnel!"
Arthur blinked, stunned. "The escape tunnel? That was sealed fifty years ago by Father!"
"It wasn't sealed," Evelyn said, rushing to the stone mantle of the fireplace. She reached into the carved mouth of the stone lion above the hearth and pulled a hidden iron lever.
With a heavy, grinding sound of stone scraping against stone, the back wall of the massive fireplace swung slowly inward, revealing a pitch-black staircase leading down into the earth.
Cold, damp air rushed out of the dark opening.
"Get Julian inside!" Evelyn commanded Arthur.
Arthur lifted the wounded lawyer, dragging him into the dark passage. Marcus didn't wait for an order—he scrambled into the dark hole on all fours like a terrified rat.
Evelyn turned back to look at Helena, who was still standing near the shattered window, exposed to the sniper’s sightline.
"Helena!" Evelyn called out, holding her hand out from the safety of the stone opening. "Get in here! Now!"
Helena looked at Evelyn—the girl she had locked in a burning cellar ten years ago, the girl she had made clean her floors, the girl who was now offering to save her life.
Tears cut clean tracks through the dust on Helena's face.
"I hated you," Helena whispered, her voice barely audible over the wind. "Because you had everything I ever wanted... a real name... a real family..."
CRACK!
A bullet struck Helena square in the center of her chest.
She gasped, her body jerking backward against the marble pillar. Her eyes rolled back, and she slid slowly down the bloody stone to the floor.
"HELENA!" Arthur screamed from inside the tunnel.
Evelyn reached out, trying to grab Helena’s hand, but a second shot hit the frame of the fireplace, showering her with sparks.
Arthur grabbed Evelyn’s belt, pulling her violently back into the dark stone passage just as the sniper shifted his sights toward the open mantle.
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Evelyn slammed her hand against the interior release lever.
The heavy stone fireplace wall swung shut with a deafening THUD, sealing them in total darkness as the muffled sound of gunfire continued to echo through the grand estate above.
