Chapter 7 - The Mastermind Revealed
The dark figure crashed onto the polished wooden floor, sending glass flying everywhere in the luxurious study.
It was Daniel, bleeding heavily from a gunshot wound to his shoulder and breathing in frantic, ragged gasps.
Vivian screamed in absolute fury, wildly swinging her pearl-handled revolver toward the man she had hired to ruin my life.
She demanded to know why he was bleeding in her pristine office instead of executing the boy at the steel mill like she ordered.
Daniel coughed up blood and laughed bitterly, revealing that the cartel men she hired had double-crossed him to steal the ledger for themselves.
I realized with absolute shock that Walter had not been the one to order my tragic car crash twelve years ago.
Vivian proudly confessed that she was the true mastermind behind the accident, acting entirely out of spite and jealousy.
She explained that she had seen how utterly obsessed young Ethan was with my dancing, and she refused to let her son fall in love with a poor servant.
She wanted Ethan to marry a prominent heiress to secure her own political ambitions, so she ordered Daniel to break my legs.
Ethan stared at his mother with utter disgust, his entire worldview completely shattered by her cold, unfeeling cruelty.
Vivian raised her weapon again, screaming that she would simply kill us all and frame Daniel for the horrific double murder.
Ethan lunged forward, throwing his entire body weight in front of me just as Vivian pulled the trigger.
The deafening crack of the gunshot echoed through the massive room, and Ethan violently jerked backward with a sharp cry of pain.
I screamed in terror as Ethan collapsed onto the floor, his hands instantly clutching his bleeding right shoulder.
I grabbed a heavy bronze statue from the nearby bookshelf and hurled it directly at Vivian's head with all my remaining strength.
The statue struck her squarely in the temple, instantly knocking her completely unconscious across the mahogany desk.
I dropped to my knees beside Ethan, frantically pressing my bare hands against his shoulder to stop the rapid flow of warm blood.
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Daniel grabbed the stolen ledger from Ethan's jacket, ignoring our desperate situation entirely.
He limped toward the broken window to make his escape, but stopped dead in his tracks when he saw what was waiting outside on the dark lawn.
