Chapter 4 - The Ultimatum
I walked into the upscale coffee shop, my hands shoved deep into my coat pockets.
Miguel was sitting in a corner booth, wearing a tailored suit he could never have afforded a year ago.
He smirked as I slid into the seat across from him.
"You always were too curious for your own good, Maya," he said, taking a sip of his espresso.
"What do you want, Miguel?" I demanded, refusing to break eye contact.
He slid a thick, white envelope across the table toward me.
"There is fifty thousand dollars in cash inside that envelope," he said casually.
"Take it, pack your bags tonight, and walk away from the Vance estate forever."
I pushed the envelope back toward him with a look of pure disgust.
"You and Ethan are planning to murder him," I said, keeping my voice dangerously low.
Miguel rolled his eyes, leaning forward with a dark, threatening expression.
"Richard is a vegetable who is standing in the way of progress," he hissed.
"You need to leave today, Maya, because his medical condition is going to suffer a tragic complication tonight."
My blood ran completely cold.
"Tonight?" I echoed, struggling to hide my rising panic.
Miguel smiled, a chilling and soulless expression that I had never seen on him before.
"Just remember that my mother warned you about surviving alone," he whispered.
I grabbed my purse, stood up without another word, and practically ran out of the cafe.
I had to get back to the estate immediately.
As I sprinted up the sweeping driveway of the mansion, I saw a strange delivery van parked near the back entrance.
A man in a generic medical uniform was handing a small, insulated cooler to Eleanor.
May you like
She thanked him, looked around nervously, and quickly hurried inside the house.
I knew exactly what was inside that cooler.
