Chapter 4 - The Doppelgänger
The heavy silence in the lavish bedroom was absolutely deafening.
Dante stared at me with narrowed eyes, searching my panicked face for any sign of deception.
He slowly lowered his silver weapon, but he did not put it back into his holster.
"You expect me to believe your evil twin sister just happens to be the woman extorting my family?" he asked sarcastically.
"Chloe has always been involved with terrible, dangerous people," I explained desperately.
I told him about our fractured childhood and how Chloe had run away at sixteen with a local drug dealer.
I explained how I had spent the last decade working double shifts just to survive quietly on my own.
Dante listened silently, his expression entirely unreadable.
"I will give you exactly twenty-four hours to prove she exists and that you are not working together," Dante finally declared.
"If you fail, I will bury you in the woods behind this estate."
He turned on his heel and marched out of the room, locking the broken door heavily from the outside.
I sank onto the edge of the large bed, burying my face in my trembling hands.
An hour later, the locked door opened again, revealing the tiny, fragile frame of Elara.
She was wearing fresh pajamas, holding a small silver tray with a bowl of hot soup.
"My daddy said you were a bad lady, but I told him he was wrong," she whispered sweetly.
She climbed up onto the massive bed and pushed the warm soup toward me.
"I will only eat if you eat with me," she demanded stubbornly.
I smiled softly, feeling a sudden, overwhelming urge to protect this sweet child at all costs.
We shared the soup peacefully, completely ignoring the terrifying circumstances of my captivity.
Suddenly, a deafening explosion rattled the expensive glass windows of the bedroom.
The mansion's emergency alarms instantly began screaming through the long hallways.
Thick black smoke immediately started billowing beneath the crack of the bedroom door.
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Heavy gunfire erupted from the front lawn, echoing violently through the sprawling estate.
Before I could grab Elara and run, a masked man shattered the bedroom window and swung into the room on a tactical rope.
