Chapter 8 - The Fall of the Vances
Suddenly, the lights throughout the penthouse went completely dark!
The emergency power grid failed as Julian’s contractors cut the main line downstairs. The heavy motorized blinds on the massive glass windows began sliding down automatically, casting the penthouse into deep shadows, illuminated only by the flashes of lightning from the storm outside.
BANG!
Julian fired his weapon, the muzzle flash lighting up the dark room for a split second. The bullet struck Lucian’s shoulder!
Lucian screamed in pain, dropping the revolver as he stumbled backward against the sofa. Lily fell from his arms onto the thick plush rug!
“LILY!” I screamed, diving across the floor through the darkness.
I scooped my daughter into my arms, wrapping my body completely around her to shield her from any stray gunfire. Lily sobbed frantically into my chest, her tiny arms locking around my neck with a death grip.
“I’ve got you, baby! Mommy’s got you!” I whispered frantically, backing into the safety of a heavy marble pillar near the elevator.
In the dark room, gunfire erupted!
Gabriel spat curses, firing his own weapon toward Julian’s position. Julian moved like a shadow, returning fire with lethal precision. The sound of shattering glass boomed through the penthouse as two of the massive floor-to-ceiling windows were blown out by stray rounds, letting the howling wind and gale-force rain sweep into the room!
The storm roared inside the penthouse, knocking over furniture and scattering corporate documents through the air like snow.
Lucian, clutching his bleeding shoulder, scrambled across the floor toward the open balcony doors where the sound of the private helicopter’s rotor blades was getting louder.
“Gabriel! Help me!” Lucian shouted over the roaring wind. “The files are on my phone! Get me on the chopper!”
Gabriel reached the balcony doors first. He looked back at his wounded twin brother crawling across the wet floor.
“You failed, Lucian,” Gabriel said, his voice cold and devoid of any human warmth. “You were always the spare.”
Gabriel kicked Lucian’s reaching hand away, stepped onto the helipad, and slammed the heavy glass reinforced door shut, locking his own brother out in the storm!
Lucian stared through the glass in utter disbelief as his twin brother abandoned him without a second thought. The illusion of his family loyalty was shattered in an instant.
Julian stepped out from the shadows, his gun trained directly on Lucian’s chest.
“It’s over, Lucian,” Julian said over the roar of the wind.
Lucian lay on the rain-soaked floor of the balcony, bleeding, abandoned, and broken. He looked up at me, standing near the elevator with Lily safe in my arms. Tears of pain and humiliation mixed with the rain streaming down his face.
“Maya…” Lucian rasped, his voice weak. “Please…”
“I gave you three years of my life, Michael,” I said, looking down at him with no hatred left in my heart—only a deep, final pity. “And you gave me my daughter. That is the only thing I will ever thank you for.”
Suddenly, the sound of heavy tactical boots echoed down the hallway.
The SWAT team of the New York Police Department, flanked by federal agents from the FBI Corporate Fraud Division, flooded into the penthouse with rifles raised!
“POLICE! DON'T MOVE! HANDS IN THE AIR!”
At the same time, two police helicopters hovered outside the broken glass windows, their bright spotlights illuminating the helipad above. Gabriel Vance was intercepted on the roof by federal agents before he could even reach the door of his helicopter.
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Federal agents moved in, slapping heavy steel handcuffs onto Gabriel’s wrists on the roof, while paramedics rushed to stabilize the bleeding Lucian on the penthouse floor.
As Lucian was placed onto a gurney, he looked at me one last time. I didn't turn away. I stood tall, holding Lily tight, watching the men who had tried to destroy us get dragged away in chains.
