Chapter 3 - The Empty Grave
The dining room windows shattered inward, sending a deadly wave of broken glass flying through the air.
I threw my body over Grace and Amara, shielding them from the sharp debris.
The mansion's alarm system began blaring, accompanied by the chaotic sound of heavy gunfire from the front gates.
Dante used the sudden distraction to kick his captor and scramble toward the hallway.
I raised my weapon and fired a single shot without hesitation.
Dante collapsed into the doorway, completely motionless.
I grabbed Grace by the arm and pulled her and the child up from the floor.
"We have to move to the secure bunker right now," I ordered, pushing them toward the secret passage behind the bookshelf.
As we sprinted down the dimly lit underground corridor, my mind raced with horrifying possibilities.
If Seraphina was alive, she had betrayed me, faked her own death, and stolen our child.
Once we were safely inside the steel-reinforced bunker, I pulled out my encrypted satellite phone.
I called my most trusted enforcer, Carlo, and told him to secure the cemetery immediately.
"I need you to exhume my family's graves tonight," I commanded.
An hour later, Carlo called back, his voice thick with absolute disbelief.
He confirmed that both caskets were completely empty, containing nothing but heavy sandbags.
Seraphina had played me for an absolute fool.
I turned to Grace, who was wrapping a blanket around a terrified, sleeping Amara.
"You knew Seraphina was alive this entire time, didn't you?" I asked her coldly.
Grace nodded slowly, refusing to break eye contact with me.
She confessed that she had been tracking Seraphina's movements through the criminal underworld for two years.
Grace had taken the maid job in my house to find a way to warn me without getting herself killed.
"Where is my wife hiding right now?" I demanded.
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Grace reached into her pocket and handed me a crumpled piece of paper.
"She is at the abandoned shipyard on the east coast, and she is working with the Volkov cartel," Grace revealed.
