Chapter 34
[Chapter 34: The Prisoner in the Cellar]
Before Ethan could pull out his phone, a muffled thud echoed from beneath the floorboards.
Ethan ignored Patricia, lunging toward a heavy tapestry on the back wall. He ripped it down, revealing a narrow wooden door leading down to the building’s old coal cellar.
He sprinted down the stairs, his flashlight beam cutting through the damp darkness.
At the bottom of the stairs, chained to a rusted iron radiator, was Melissa. Her clothes were torn, her face pale and sunken. The cut on her forehead from the night of the fire had healed into a jagged, angry scar.
“Ethan...” she gasped, her voice barely a whisper through her cracked lips. “You... you came.”
“Melissa, oh my God,” Ethan said, rushing over and using the heavy tactical flashlight to smash the old padlock on the chains. It shattered after three brutal strikes. He pulled his shivering sister into his arms. “I’ve got you. We’re leaving.”
“Ethan, you don’t understand,” Melissa sobbed, clutching his jacket. “Mom didn’t trap me here to extort you. She trapped me because I found out the truth about Dad. I tried to tell you in the note, but she caught me writing it. Dad isn’t trying to save us, Ethan. He’s liquidating the firm’s remaining assets in Iowa tonight. He’s going to frame you for the identity theft and the wire fraud, and then he’s going to disappear with Lauren and Noah.”
Ethan’s phone suddenly vibrated in his pocket. A text message from an unknown Swiss number.
It was a live video link.
May you like
Ethan clicked it. The screen showed the interior of the secure Iowa safehouse. Richard was standing by the door, wearing his heavy winter coat.
But he wasn't holding a hunting rifle. He was holding a silenced semi-automatic pistol, pointed directly at the back of Lauren’s head while she packed a suitcase.
