Chapter 7 - The Shadows in the Study
The truth hit the subterranean chamber like a thunderbolt.
Grace Harper hadn't just taken a job as a maid in the Beacon Hill mansion to pay her rent—she had spent two years searching for her missing mother who had vanished decades ago! And six-year-old Mia, while trying to protect her sick mother's job, had accidentally stumbled upon the hidden mechanism that kept her grandmother imprisoned.
Mr. Duca turned his icy gaze toward Marcus. "Who gave the orders to keep her down here?"
Before Marcus could answer, a cold, sharp voice echoed from the stone staircase behind them:
"I gave the orders, nephew."
Stepping into the subterranean light was Thomas Duca—Mr. Duca’s forty-five-year-old cousin and the chief financial trustee of the family foundation. Dressed in a grey tailored suit, Thomas held a sleek silver pistol in his hand, flanked by two armed mercenaries.
"Thomas," Mr. Duca said, his voice flat and terrifyingly calm as he stepped directly in front of Mia, Lily, and Eleanor. "You operated a illegal prison beneath my study."
"Julian left me the keys, Victor!" Thomas sneered, his sharp face tightening with bitter arrogance. "If Eleanor Harper dies, the fifty percent commercial land claim defaults to the primary Duca trust—which I control! You were too soft to use this estate's real power!"
Mia clung tightly to Mr. Duca's trousers, holding baby Lily securely against her back as the baby whimpered quietly.
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"You brought weapons into my house, Thomas," Mr. Duca said softly, his dark eyes turning into liquid nitrogen. "In front of children."
"I brought an end to the Harper line, Victor!" Thomas shouted, aiming his pistol at Eleanor. "Step aside, or you die with them!"
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