Chapter 2 - Echoes from the Deep Trench
The silence that followed the seamstress's revelation hung suffocatingly heavy in the luxury boutique. Victoria caught her balance against a glass display case, her breath hitching in her chest. For a fleeting second, the haughty armor she wore cracked, revealing raw panic in her eyes before she forced her expression back into a cold, defensive mask.
"You're insane," Victoria hissed, though her voice lacked its previous razor-sharp edge. "My father is a decorated naval captain and a respected titan of industry. He didn't build his fortune by destroying lives. He protects them."
The old seamstress, whose name tag simply read Martha, stepped smoothly around the mannequin. The glowing blue lights in her artificial eyes pulsed with a steady, haunting rhythm, reflecting off the dark pearls sewn into the breathtaking wedding gown. Martha’s scarred face remained an unreadable mask of quiet grief and iron resolve.
"Protection is a convenient word for men who abandon sinking vessels while locking the hatches from the outside," Martha replied, her tone devastatingly calm. "The Leviathan VII was never supposed to submerge into the Mariana Trench without its civilian specialists. But your father needed the insurance payout, and my daughter Martha Junior was the lead engineer holding the blueprints."
Victoria’s heart hammered against her ribs. The details Martha dropped were terrifyingly specific—details that had been scrubbed from every public record decades ago. Only someone on the inside, or someone who had lost everything, could possess such forbidden knowledge. Victoria’s wedding to Julian, another corporate heir, was supposed to cement her family's untouchable legacy, not exhume ghosts buried miles beneath the ocean floor.
"If any of that slander were true, you'd be at the bottom of the ocean too," Victoria whispered, stepping toward the exit.
Martha didn't chase her. Instead, the old seamstress reached out and gently stroked a silver chain on the bodice of the dress.
"I was there, Victoria. I survived the pressure, but I lost my humanity to save my mind. And now, I am here to fit your wedding dress."
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Martha suddenly pressed a concealed button on the mannequin's base, and a hidden compartment in the boutique floor clicked open.
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