Chapter 4 - Shadows in the Cellar
The private holding room beneath the Sterling mansion was constructed of reinforced concrete and soundproof steel—a relic from the Cold War that Christian’s grandfather had built to store family secrets and high-value assets. Tonight, it served as an interrogation chamber.
Victoria sat strapped to a heavy iron chair, her designer gown torn at the shoulder, glaring at the digital monitor Marcus had mounted to the wall.
Christian stood with his arms crossed, his face an emotionless mask, though the veins in his neck bulged with barely contained fury. In the adjoining observation room, behind two-way ballistic glass, Elena sat on a leather sofa with Leo asleep in her lap, wrapped in Christian’s cashmere overcoat.
Marcus plugged the flash drive into the terminal.
The screen flickered to life. A timestamp from four years ago appeared, showing the master bedroom of the late patriarch, Arthur Sterling. The frail old man was lying in his medical bed, breathing with the help of an oxygen mask. The video showed Victoria walking into frame, holding a small vial of clear liquid.
"You should have signed the trust over to me, Arthur," Victoria’s voice came through the high-definition speakers, crystal clear and chillingly calm. "Leaving everything to Elena and that unborn brat was an insult to the family name."
"Elena... is his wife..." Arthur wheezed on the recording, his hand trembling as he tried to reach for the emergency call button. "Christian... loves her..."
"Christian loves whatever I put in front of him," Victoria sneered on the tape, leaning over to inject the contents of the vial directly into the IV line. "He's weak. Just like you. Within three minutes, your potassium levels will spike, your heart will stop, and the coroners will call it natural arrhythmia. Goodbye, Uncle."
The recording cut to black.
Inside the interrogation room, Christian didn't yell. He didn't smash the table. He simply walked over to Victoria, placed both hands on the armrests of her chair, and leaned down until his eyes were inches from hers.
"You killed my father," he whispered, each word carrying the weight of an execution sentence. "And then you faked a car crash in the Alps to erase my wife and son."
Victoria didn't flinch. A cold, arrogant smile spread across her lips. "Your father was an obstacle. Elena was a peasant who got lucky in a coffee shop. She didn't belong in this empire. I built this family's political connections, Christian. I made you who you are!"
"Where was she for three years, Victoria?" Christian demanded, his voice dropping into a register that made even the guards outside the door shift uneasily. "Answer me before I let Marcus turn off the cameras."
"Ask her yourself," Victoria spat, nodding toward the glass. "Ask her about the clinic in Blackwood. Ask her why she didn't come running back to you the second she broke out. She knows what you did, Christian. She knows what you signed."
Christian froze. A knot of cold dread formed in the pit of his stomach. "What are you talking about?"
"You signed the organ donor consent forms after the crash, darling," Victoria purred with wicked delight. "You authorized them to harvest her heart. I just made sure the surgeon took the bribe to let her rot in an underground psych ward instead. If she hates me, Christian... she despises you."
Behind the glass, Elena gripped sleeping Leo tighter, her knuckles turning bone white as the memories of the padded walls and the cold sedation needles flashed through her mind.
May you like
Christian slowly turned his head to look at the glass, his face stricken with horror.
Before he could speak, the power inside the compound cut out completely. Red emergency backup lights flickered on, bathing the concrete room in a sinister crimson glow, accompanied by the deafening sound of an explosive breach at the main estate gates.
