Chapter 8 - The Impostor
I stared at my sister, completely paralyzed by confusion and betrayal.
Sarah was not wearing her bloody bridesmaid dress.
She was dressed in black tactical gear, her hands perfectly steady as she aimed the weapon at me.
"Sarah?" I whispered, my voice breaking.
"What are you doing?"
"Put the ledger on the floor, Clara," Sarah ordered coldly.
"You are working with them?" I asked, tears welling in my eyes.
"The bloody veil, the kidnapping... it was all a staged performance?"
Sarah scoffed, rolling her eyes.
"Of course it was staged."
"I needed you to leave the church so Julian could secure his assets before the feds froze the accounts."
"But you had to be difficult and jump out of a moving car."
Isabella slowly raised her own weapon, aiming it at Sarah's head.
"Drop the gun, little girl," Isabella warned.
"You have no idea who you are actually working for."
Sarah laughed, a harsh, cruel sound I had never heard from her before.
"I know exactly who I am working for," Sarah sneered.
"I know he is not Adrian Vale."
"Julian told me everything months ago."
"We are in love, Clara."
"He was only marrying you to frame you for the fraud."
My stomach dropped as the pieces clicked together.
My own sister had helped orchestrate my destruction.
"He is using you, Sarah," I pleaded desperately.
"He works for a cartel."
"Once they have the ledger, they will kill you just like they tried to kill Isabella."
"He loves me!" Sarah screamed, her composure cracking.
"I am carrying his child!"
The revelation hit me like a physical blow.
She was pregnant with the child of a ruthless assassin.
"Sarah, please," I begged, taking a step toward her.
"Do not do this."
"Hand over the book," Sarah demanded, her finger tightening on the trigger.
I looked at Isabella, who gave me a microscopic nod.
I slowly knelt down, pretending to place the heavy leather book on the stone floor.
As my knee touched the ground, I violently kicked the heavy metal flashlight sitting near my foot.
It flew across the floor and smashed directly into Sarah's shin.
She gasped in pain, stumbling backward.
Isabella lunged forward, grabbing the barrel of Sarah's gun and twisting it upward.
The gun fired into the ceiling, raining stone dust down on us.
I tackled my sister to the floor, pinning her arms beneath my knees.
"I am sorry, Sarah," I cried, pulling a zip tie from Isabella's tactical belt.
I secured her wrists tightly and took her weapon.
"You ruined everything!" Sarah sobbed, struggling helplessly on the floor.
"Let us go," Isabella said, grabbing the ledger and heading down into the smuggling tunnel.
"The air in here is already getting thin."
We climbed down into the damp earth, leaving my crying sister locked in the crypt.
We navigated the narrow dirt passage for twenty minutes until we emerged in a dense forest outside the estate walls.
We ran to Isabella's hidden backup vehicle and sped away toward the city.
"We have to leak the ledger directly to the cartel bosses," Isabella said as she drove.
"It is the only way to destroy Julian and Celeste instantly."
I opened my laptop and connected to a secure encrypted network.
I scanned the first five pages of the ledger, highlighting the massive amounts of money Julian had skimmed from the cartel accounts.
I sent the files anonymously to the dark web addresses used by the cartel leadership.
"It is done," I breathed heavily.
"They will know he stole from them within the hour."
My phone suddenly rang, displaying Evelyn's name on the screen.
I answered it quickly, desperate for good news.
"Clara, thank god you are alive," Evelyn's voice sounded panicked.
"You need to get to the FBI safe house right now."
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"Julian is not running."
"He just walked into the federal precinct and confessed to everything."
