Chapter 24 - The Interrogation Room
The basement of the Hamptons estate was a place Hannah had never been allowed to see.
It was a soundproof, concrete bunker that Dominic used exclusively during his days running the city’s underground syndicate.
Clara, the quiet new maid, was strapped securely to a heavy metal chair in the center of the cold, windowless room.
Dominic stood in front of her, methodically rolling up the sleeves of his dark dress shirt.
Hannah watched from the shadows near the heavy steel door, her heart hardening into pure ice.
A few months ago, the sight of this brutal interrogation room would have terrified her to her core.
But after seeing her three innocent daughters hooked up to IV machines in a sterile hospital ward, she felt absolutely zero mercy.
Clara was sobbing hysterically, swearing to God that she had no idea the strawberry puree was tainted with poison.
Dominic did not raise his voice; he simply picked up a heavy pair of steel pliers from a metal tray.
He calmly explained that he had pulled the security footage, which clearly showed Clara slipping a small vial into her apron before serving the food.
He gave her exactly ten seconds to reveal who had given her the vial and the exact nature of their instructions.
Clara looked at the pliers and completely broke down, her false innocence shattering under the weight of her sheer terror.
She confessed that she had been hired by a man claiming to represent the Sterling family trust.
But the man was not a lawyer; he was a highly trained operative belonging to a rogue faction of the intelligence community.
Eleanor had bypassed the mafia entirely and purchased the loyalty of a corrupt FBI counter-terrorism unit to do her dirty work.
They had instructed Clara to make the children sick so that child protective services would have medical grounds to immediately remove them from the home.
Dominic dropped the pliers onto the tray with a loud, ringing clatter that made Clara flinch violently.
He turned to Hannah, his dark eyes reflecting the grim reality of their impossible situation.
They were no longer fighting street thugs or mafia bosses; they were at war with highly trained federal agents operating completely off the books.
Hannah stepped entirely out of the shadows, walking slowly toward the terrified maid.
She looked Clara dead in the eyes and whispered that she would let her walk out of this basement alive on one absolute condition.
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Clara had to call her handler and tell him that the poison had worked perfectly, and the children were being moved to a vulnerable location.
They were going to set a trap for the wolves, and Hannah was going to be the bait.
