Chapter 4 - The Unraveling
A chaotic firefight erupted in the estate courtyard as Victor’s loyalists attempted to break him out of captivity. Gunfire shattered the crystal chandeliers in the main foyer. Damian grabbed my arm, pulling Leah and me down a hidden escape passage that led deep into the subterranean tunnels beneath the manor. "Stay close to me!" he commanded, his body acting as a human shield as bullets tore through the plaster above us. Leah didn't scream; instead, she pressed her face into my neck, repeating her new favorite word over and over: "Mama... Mama..."
We reached a fortified safe house hidden beneath an abandoned warehouse near the docks. Inside, away from the immediate crossfire, the raw emotional weight of the situation crashed over me. I looked at Damian—a man feared across the Eastern Seaboard—and saw a father who was terrified of losing the only light left in his life. "If Victor takes her back, or if the court finds out she isn't legally mine," Damian confessed, his voice barely above a whisper in the dim lighting, "they will strip me of everything and put her in the system. Or worse."
