Chapter 6 - Betrayal from Within
The triumph at the gala was short-lived. The next afternoon, while Miles was stuck in an emergency board meeting dealing with the fallout of the public scene, a crisis erupted at the Kincaid Estate.
Aiden and Lucas were playing in the private gardens at the back of the property when a fire alarm tripped inside the house. Thick smoke began billowing from the east wing—the server room housing the security grids.
In the confusion, two men dressed as utility workers breached the perimeter fence.
Marina, who was reviewing legal papers in the library, heard the alarm and rushed downstairs. She immediately ran toward the garden to find the boys.
"Aiden! Lucas!" she screamed through the rising smoke.
She spotted them near the hedge line, but her blood ran cold when she saw a tall man grabbing Lucas by the arm while Aiden desperately hit the attacker with a toy truck.
"Let him go!" Marina shrieked, sprinting forward. She grabbed a heavy bronze garden statue from a display stand and slammed it into the attacker's shoulder with all her strength. The man yelped, releasing Lucas.
"Run! Inside the panic room, now!" Marina yelled to the boys, shoving them toward the house.
The second attacker lunged from the shadows, grabbing Marina from behind and pressing a chemical-soaked rag over her mouth and nose. She fought wildly, kicking and scratching, but the sweet, heavy fumes quickly invaded her lungs.
As her vision blurred, she saw the main gates swing open and a familiar figure walk into the smoke—not Julian, but Miles' own chief corporate legal advisor, Sarah Sterling.
May you like
"I told you, Eleanor," Sarah said coldly to someone on her cell phone as Marina sank to the grass. "Miles trusts me with everything. Once the girl is gone and the flash drive is destroyed, Kincaid Global will drop the lawsuit to protect his precious reputation."
Marina's eyes closed as darkness took her.
