Chapter 17 - HER FOSTER MOTHER CAME OUT OF THE SHADOWS WITH A BLOOD-STAINED LETTER!
Julian’s thumb hovered dangerously over the red button on the detonator. The room fell into a terrifying, suffocating silence.
"You want me, Julian," Maya said softly, taking a calm, deliberate step out from behind her mother. "You tried to kill me two years ago with that hit-and-run. You failed then, and you're failing now."
"Shut up!" Julian screamed, his arm shaking violently as he aimed the gun directly at Maya's chest. "You were supposed to die in that street! You were supposed to remain a nameless orphan!"
"She was never a nameless orphan, Julian," a voice called out from the back of the dark hallway behind Julian.
An older woman stepped out from the shadows, wearing a simple wool shawl over a faded dress. She carried a yellowed, blood-stained envelope in her trembling hands.
Maya gasped, her eyes widening in shock. "Mother Mary...?"
It was the woman who had raised Maya in the local orphanage for fifteen years.
"Mary?" Eleanor whispered, recognizing the woman immediately. "My former head of security who went missing twenty years ago!"
"I didn't abandon you, Madam Chairwoman," Mary said, tears falling down her weathered cheeks as she looked at Julian. "Twenty years ago, when Arthur Vance ordered the hit on your family, I intercepted the squad sent to eliminate baby Maya. I was shot twice... but I saved her. I hid her in my orphanage, keeping her safe until she was strong enough to return to you."
Mary raised the blood-stained letter in her hand. "And in this envelope is the final confession signed by Arthur Vance himself... naming the true leader of The Apex Group. The man who ordered Julian to escape prison tonight!"
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Julian’s eyes flickered with confusion and doubt. "What... what are you talking about? Arthur promised me I would inherit everything!"
"Arthur lied to you, Julian!" Mary shouted. "You were just a disposable pawn meant to take the blame and die in this room!"
