CHAPTER 8 — THE WOMAN WHO WAS NEVER A NANNY
Adrian lunged toward Lily.
"Take the drive!"
Gunfire erupted.
Viktor and his men burst through the ruined elevator shaft, engaging Adrian's mercenaries.
The underground hall became a battlefield.
Marble shattered.
Glass exploded.
Smoke swallowed everything.
Samuel pulled Lily behind a stone pillar.
"Stay down!"
But before he could shield her...
Someone grabbed Lily's arm.
It wasn't Adrian.
It wasn't Cassandra.
It was the young housemaid.
The same woman who had disappeared into the tunnels earlier.
She removed her wig.
Then peeled away the fake skin covering part of her face.
Underneath...
She was barely thirty.
Sharp eyes.
Military posture.
An FBI badge flashed for only a second.
"My name isn't Harper," she whispered.
"It's Emily Carter."
"I've been undercover in this house for eighteen months."
Lily looked confused.
"You work for Daddy?"
Emily hesitated.
"No."
"I work for the people trying to keep your daddy alive."
She knelt beside the frightened child.
"Marcus never knew I was here."
"He wasn't supposed to."
Before Lily could answer...
A bullet struck the wall inches from Emily's head.
Samuel fired back with a hidden revolver.
Emily stared at him.
"You carry a gun?"
Samuel smiled sadly.
"I worked for Marcus before you finished school."
The three hurried deeper into the tunnels.
Behind them...
Marcus and Adrian finally stood face to face.
No guns.
No guards.
Just two men whose hatred had been growing for decades.
Adrian wiped blood from his lip.
"You took everything from me."
Marcus answered quietly.
"No."
"You destroyed yourself."
Adrian laughed bitterly.
"You remember Elena?"
Marcus's expression changed for the first time.
Elena.
The woman who had disappeared shortly before Lily's adoption.
Adrian stepped closer.
"She loved you."
"She chose you."
"And because of that..."
"They killed her."
Marcus's breathing stopped.
"What did you say?"
Adrian smiled through the blood.
"You still don't know."
Before he could say another word...
A sniper's bullet pierced the glass ceiling.
It struck Adrian squarely in the shoulder.
He crashed backward.
Everyone looked up.
The shot hadn't come from Marcus's men.
May you like
Nor from the FBI.
Someone else had entered the game.
