Chapter 7 - TRAPPED IN THE MANSION
The service corridors were a labyrinth of dust and narrow wooden stairs. Elena pressed her back against the cold stone wall, clutching Liam to her chest. She could hear the muffled shouts of armed men tearing the bedrooms apart above them. "Mommy, are we going to die?" Liam whispered against her collarbone. Hearing his voice again sent a fierce, protective surge of adrenaline through her veins. "No, baby," she whispered fiercely. "I just got you back. I'm never letting you go again." Below them, in the grand foyer, Alexander was bruised and bleeding but firmly in the grip of two heavily armed men. Marcus stepped through the grand double doors, dressed in an immaculate bespoke suit, looking more like a guest arriving at a gala than a man orchestrating a massacre. "It didn't have to be this messy, Alex," Marcus sighed, adjusting his cuffs. "If you had just married Vanessa and signed the merger documents on Monday, Liam would have gone to boarding school, and you could have lived in blissful ignorance. But your dead wife had to come back and ruin the timeline." Alexander spat blood onto the marble floor. "You're a dead man, Marcus. You think you can cover up a massacre in this house?"
