Chapter 12 - Hidden Secrets
Jax clung to the jagged edge of the rock wall with one bleeding hand.
Julian dangled beneath him, his fingers clawing desperately into Jax’s leather vest.
"Help me up, you fool!" Julian screamed, his voice cracking with pure terror.
"If I fall, you'll never find out what happened to your father!" Julian yelled up at him.
Jax froze, his bloodied knuckles turning white against the rock face.
"What did you say about my father?" Jax demanded, his voice strained from the sheer weight.
"He didn't die in the fire either!" Julian shrieked as his boots slipped on the wet rock.
"He's been locked in the lower vaults under the chapel for ten years!" Julian confessed, panic taking over his voice.
Eleanor gasped, covering her mouth as the shock hit her like a physical blow.
Her father was still alive, trapped beneath the very church where she was supposed to get married.
"Hold on!" Jax grunted, attempting to pull Julian back over the ledge with his free arm.
Julian's slick leather shoes slipped on the wet mud once more.
The seam of Jax's vest ripped apart with a sharp tear.
Julian let out a blood-curdling scream as he slid free, plunging straight down into the pitch-black abyss below.
A heavy splash echoed faintly from the dark canyon floor far below.
Silence fell over the cliffside, broken only by the sound of the pouring rain and heavy gasping.
Jax hauled himself over the ledge, collapsing onto his back in the mud, breathing heavily.
Eleanor ran over to him, kneeling beside him in the mud.
"Jax... is my father really down there?" Eleanor asked, tears streaming freely down her face.
Jax turned his head toward her, his eyes dark with grim determination.
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"We have to get back to that chapel before his men clear out the vaults," Jax said hoarsely.
"Because they're going to burn the evidence to the ground."
