Chapter 3 - Ashes of Deception
"Fire! The west wing is on fire!"
Panic erupted throughout the mansion. Heavy, acrid black smoke began pouring through the vents. In the chaos of the darkness, Maya was shoved violently from behind. She tumbled down a flight of service stairs, pain exploding in her ankle as she landed at the bottom.
Above her, a figure silhouetted by the emergency strobe lights locked the heavy iron basement door, trapping her in the rapidly suffocating dark. It was Evelyn’s silhouette.
Inside the main hall, Beatrice was being dragged out by bodyguards, screaming for Maya. "Where is she?! Find my granddaughter!"
Evelyn appeared out of the smoke, coughing coughing convincingly. "Mother! The girl ran away! I saw her sprint out the front gates when the fire started! She must have panicked because she knew the DNA test would prove she’s a fraud!"
Meanwhile, across town at the private medical lab, a man in a janitor’s uniform walked into the testing facility. He pulled out a syringe, extracted the blood from the vial labeled 'MAYA,' and replaced it with a pre-prepared sample of random blood. He smiled, leaving the lab just as the fire department arrived at the Vance estate.
Four hours later, the fire was contained. The west wing was scorched, but the mansion survived. In a temporary holding room at a luxury hotel, Beatrice sat broken-hearted. Dr. Harrison entered, holding a document. His face was grim.
"The results are in, Duchess," Dr. Harrison said quietly.
Evelyn and Chloe exchanged a triumphant, smug glance.
"And?" Beatrice whispered.
"The DNA profile of the girl does not match the Vance bloodline. There is a 0% probability of maternal relation. I'm sorry, Beatrice. She was an imposter."
Beatrice bowed her head, weeping bitterly for the granddaughter she thought she had found. Evelyn smirked, leaning back in her chair. The threat was eliminated. The girl would either die of smoke inhalation in the sealed basement, or be hunted as a scam artist.
But Evelyn made one fatal mistake. She didn't know that Maya hadn't spent her life being soft. Maya was a survivor from the docks.
Deep in the mansion's basement, gasping for air, Maya used the sharp edge of the Willow Diamond pendant to pry open an old ventilation grate. Crawling through the soot, her skin bleeding and bruised, she dragged herself out into the cold night air of the estate grounds.
May you like
She lay on the grass, looking up at the burning moon. They had tried to kill her. The woman named Evelyn had tried to burn her alive.
"You think you won?" Maya whispered through cracked, bloody lips, clutching the pendant tightly. "I don't care about your money. But you will pay for what you did to my mother."
