Chapter 11 - The Devil’s Carriage
Elena stared at the open door of the black sedan, the rain soaking through her dark brown hair and plastering it across her face. The interior of the car smelled faintly of expensive leather and Amanda’s cloying, sharp perfume.
“Get in, Elena,” Amanda repeated, her voice eerily calm, lacking the venomous edge she had displayed in the marbled hallway earlier that morning. Instead, it carried the chilling sweetness of a spider addressing a fly caught in its web.
“Where is my father?” Elena demanded, clutching the black handbag and the photograph of her bound father against her chest like a shield. Her white sneakers were caked in mud, but she held her ground at the edge of the curb.
Amanda sighed, leaning back against the plush leather seat with calculated elegance. “Your father is exactly where his weakness led him. He gambled away our entire livelihood to pay off debts he accumulated behind your mother’s back. I am the only thing standing between him and a federal prison cell.”
“You killed my mom,” Elena whispered, the words slipping out before she could stop them, charged with a lifetime of pent-up grief and suspicion.
Amanda’s expression hardened for a fraction of a second, the mask slipping to reveal a flash of cold malice. Then, she smiled again. “Your mother was sick, Elena. The doctors’ reports are all signed and filed. But if you keep running around with corrupt detectives like Vance, people are going to start getting hurt—permanently.”
Before Elena could process the thinly veiled threat, the sound of police sirens wailed in the distance, cutting through the rainy night air. Headlights flashed down the block as an unmarked cruiser turned the corner, its blue and red lights painting the wet pavement in frantic strokes.
Amanda’s eyes narrowed. She pressed a button on the armrest, and the power window began to roll up smoothly.
“You have five minutes to make a choice, Elena,” Amanda said as the window narrowed her view. “Get in the car and help me save your father, or stand out here in the rain and watch everything your family ever built turn to ash.”
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The window clicked shut, sealing Amanda inside. As the sedan pulled away from the curb, the police cruiser screeched to a halt right beside Elena, and the passenger door swung open to reveal Detective Vance—bleeding from a cut lip, his trench coat torn—staring at her with urgent desperation.
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