Chapter 8 - The Viper’s Trap
The next evening, Victoria was in the city, meeting with her lawyers to secretly draft new wills and inheritance documents. Elena was resting in a guest suite—Victoria had explicitly forbidden her from wearing the maid's uniform ever again.
There was a knock on the door. It was Isabelle.
Her eyes were red, and she looked thoroughly defeated. "Elena," she said, her voice shaking with fake sincerity. "My mother told me everything. I... I can't believe it. I feel so terrible for how I treated you."
Elena, possessing a heart too kind for her own good, softened. "It's a lot to process for both of us."
"I want to make it right," Isabelle said. "I bought a gift. A peace offering. But I left it at the boutique downtown, and my driver is off duty. Could we take a cab? Just you and me? No bodyguards. Just... sisters?"
Against her better judgment, Elena agreed.
They took a cab deep into the industrial district. The streets grew darker, the buildings abandoned. Suddenly, the cab jerked to a halt in an empty alley.
The driver stepped out, locking the doors behind him. From the shadows, two large men in dark coats approached the car.
Isabelle smirked, pressing herself against the opposite door. "Did you really think I'd let a street rat take my crown?"
Elena’s heart pounded. But she hadn't grown up in luxury. She had grown up in the hardest neighborhoods in New York. Survival was in her blood.
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As one of the men smashed the passenger window, Elena didn't scream. She grabbed the heavy fire extinguisher from under the front seat. She swung it with brutal force, smashing it into the attacker's face.
She kicked the door open, grabbed Isabelle by the hair, and slammed her face into the dashboard before scrambling out of the car. Elena sprinted into the darkness of the alley, her breath burning in her lungs, dodging the second attacker as she vanished into the maze of the city she knew better than anyone.
