Chapter 19 - The Ultimate Trap

Mateo’s phone buzzed violently in his hand, breaking the suffocating silence of the underground bunker. He looked down at the screen. It was a video call from an unknown, secure number.
With a trembling finger, Mateo swiped to answer.
Julian’s face filled the small screen, with Elena sitting quietly in a chair beside him, her expression eerily serene, devoid of fear.
"Impressed, little brother?" Julian’s voice echoed both from the phone in Mateo's hand and through the small computer speakers in the bunker. "Mother didn't escape the underground cell fifteen years ago because she was a victim. She escaped because she was the mastermind who helped Arthur orchestrate the original theft. They just had a falling out over how to split the spoils."
Mateo stared at the screen, his heart pounding against his ribs like a sledgehammer. "Mother... is that true?"
Elena slowly turned her head toward the camera. A chilling, calculating smile—the exact replica of the one Arthur used to wear before destroying his rivals—touched her lips.
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"Power isn't inherited, Mateo," Elena spoke, her voice completely devoid of the fragile warmth she had shown him months prior. "It is seized. And you were foolish enough to hand the entire empire back to us on a silver platter by turning this estate into a public trust with a blind board of directors that we now control."
Before Mateo could react, the heavy iron hatch above them slammed shut with a deafening, metallic clank. The automatic locking bolts engaged, sealing them securely in the underground chamber.