Chapter 6 - The Architect of Lies
I caught the heavy ring of keys, completely confused by Clarissa's terrifying statement.
"What do you mean she is not a hostage?" Dad demanded, aiming his rifle nervously around the dark warehouse.
Clarissa stood up and pointed toward a highly secure, glass-enclosed office on the upper catwalk.
"Your wife is the one who orchestrated this entire war, and she is the true leader of the Moretti syndicate," Clarissa revealed.
The heavy words hit me like a physical blow to the chest.
My sweet, loving mother was supposedly the ruthless mastermind trying to destroy our entire family.
"That is an absolute lie, she would never betray us," Emilio yelled angrily at his wife.
Clarissa walked over to a security console and pressed a button to replay the warehouse surveillance footage.
The grainy video clearly showed my mother casually walking into the building completely unescorted.
She was confidently giving direct tactical orders to Silvio and Victor Moretti.
"She completely faked her own death to frame our family for massive federal crimes," Clarissa explained coldly.
"She used the encrypted hard drives as a brilliant distraction to lock up our offshore funds."
Dad stared at the video monitor in complete, unadulterated shock.
Thirty years of a seemingly perfect marriage had been an elaborate, deadly illusion.
"Why would she do something so incredibly evil to her own children?" I asked softly.
"Because she discovered that your father ordered the assassination of her brother twenty years ago," Clarissa answered.
Dad looked down at his boots, confirming the dark family secret with his guilty silence.
Mom had spent two decades carefully planning her ultimate, devastating revenge.
Suddenly, the heavy metal roll-up doors of the warehouse slammed violently shut.
A loud, mechanical voice echoed through the building's massive speaker system.
"I am so glad you all finally figured it out," my mother's voice echoed chillingly from the speakers.
"I truly loved you boys, but you chose to stand with the man who murdered my blood."
Thick, toxic green gas began pouring rapidly from the ceiling ventilation ducts.
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"I am absolutely not leaving any loose ends tonight," my mother declared before cutting the microphone.
The metal doors were magnetically locked, and we were completely trapped inside a massive gas chamber.
