CHAPTER 5 – The Detective's Betrayal
Richard couldn't breathe.
The detective standing beside Emily's ambulance wasn't helping her.
He was smiling.
The same detective who had comforted Richard, promised justice, and led every raid...
had been standing beside the enemy all along.
Before anyone could react, the ambulance doors slammed shut.
The sirens roared.
The vehicle sped away.
"Stop them!" Richard shouted.
Police cruisers exploded into motion.
A high-speed chase tore through the city before sunrise.
But something felt wrong.
The ambulance wasn't heading toward a hospital.
It was racing toward the old Hayes family estate—the mansion that had been abandoned ever since the mysterious fire twenty-three years ago.
Inside the mansion...
Emily slowly opened her eyes.
She was handcuffed to an old wooden chair.
Victor stood beside the detective, pouring two glasses of whiskey.
"I told you she'd come back," Victor laughed.
The detective removed his badge and placed it on the table.
"My name was never Detective Collins."
"I've been working for your uncle since the day your mother died."
Emily glared at them.
"You murdered her."
Victor smiled.
"No..."
"Your mother discovered what our family was really worth."
He opened a hidden steel vault behind the fireplace.
Inside were stacks of gold bars, priceless diamonds, and folders containing the ownership papers of billions of dollars in land and companies hidden under fake names.
"This empire was never supposed to belong to your father."
"It belonged to your mother."
"And after she refused to sign it over..."
Victor shrugged.
"The fire solved everything."
Emily's hands shook with rage.
"You killed her for money."
Victor leaned closer.
"No."
"I killed her because she loved Richard more than she feared me."
Meanwhile...
Richard ignored every order from the police.
With the baby safely protected, he drove alone toward the mansion.
Something deep inside told him this was where it would all end.
As he entered the front gate, memories came flooding back.
The smell of smoke.
The screams.
The flames.
Suddenly...
He remembered something he had buried in his mind for twenty-three years.
The fire had started...
after he heard two gunshots.
Not before.
His wife hadn't died in the flames.
She had already been murdered.
Richard's entire world shattered.
He had been grieving the wrong death all along.
Just then, a single gunshot echoed through the mansion.
Richard sprinted toward the sound.
He kicked open the grand ballroom doors...
And froze.
Emily was standing free.
Victor was on the floor.
The detective was unconscious.
But the biggest shock wasn't either of them.
Standing in the middle of the room, holding the smoking pistol...
was an elderly woman Richard had believed was buried beside his wife for over two decades.
She slowly turned toward him, tears streaming down her face.
"Richard..."
Her voice trembled.
"I never died."
The gun slipped from her hand.
"I'm your wife."
Richard's heart stopped.
The woman everyone had mourned...
The woman whose grave he had visited every Sunday for twenty-three years...
had been alive the entire time.
May you like
And she had returned for one reason only.
To finish the war that Victor had started.
