Chapter 9 - The Collision
The sound of shattering glass and tortured metal reverberated through the estate, silencing Vivienne’s threats instantly. A blinding flash of white headlights cut horizontally across the dark sky from the direction of the service road, followed by a heavy cloud of gray smoke billowing over the top of the brick boundary wall.
“What was that?” Vivienne screamed, dropping her leather vanity case as panic completely consumed her. She stumbled blindly toward the front courtyard, forgetting all about Clara as she ran toward the main drive.
Clara didn’t hesitate. She grabbed her dropped backpack, slung it over one shoulder, and sprinted after Vivienne, driven by an overwhelming instinct to see what had happened.
When they burst through the brick archway leading to the service road, a horrific scene met their eyes. Marcus’s sleek black sports car had plowed directly into the side of a Sterling & Thorne tactical SUV, embedding the front bumper deep into the passenger-side door. The airbags had deployed, filling the wrecked cabins with powdery white smoke.
Julian was already there, pulling the driver’s side door of the sports car open with brute force. He hauled an unconscious, bleeding Marcus out onto the asphalt, coughing violently from the acrid smell of burning rubber and leaking radiator fluid.
“Marcus! Can you hear me, you idiot?” Julian yelled, shaking his twin’s shoulder as blood trickled down Marcus’s temple.
The lead agent from Sterling & Thorne kicked his own door open, stepping out of the wrecked SUV with a bruised cheekbone. He drew his weapon, aiming it instinctively at Marcus before realizing the man was completely incapacitated. The agent lowered his gun and tapped his comms unit sharply.
“Unit one, we have a high-speed collision on the east service road. Requesting immediate medical evacuation and local transit support. Move now!”
Clara stopped near the edge of the road, her hand clamped over her mouth as she stared at the wreckage. The sheer scale of destruction was staggering—billions of dollars in generational wealth, corporate fraud, family betrayal, and now physical ruin, all colliding in a pathetic display of human greed.
Vivienne pushed past Clara, falling to her knees beside Marcus’s bleeding form. She didn’t look at Julian; instead, she frantically patted down Marcus’s jacket pockets, searching for something hidden away from the federal agents.
“Where is it, Marcus?” Vivienne hissed into his unconscious ear, her voice desperate. “Where are the bearer bond codes?”
Julian shoved Vivienne away with a violent shove, sending her sprawling onto the gravel. “Have you lost every ounce of human decency? He’s bleeding to death!”
“He’s already dead to the world, Julian, and so are we!” Vivienne shrieked, tears finally cutting clean tracks through the caked-on makeup on her face.
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Before Julian could answer, the wailing sirens of actual local police cruisers finally arrived, flooding the estate entrance with a blinding wall of red and blue light.
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