Chapter 10 - The Night the Mansion Fell
The woman said her name was Claire Brooks.
Hannah couldn't stop staring.
Elena couldn't speak.
Claire entered the mansion with Margaret.
Victor's guards searched both women.
No weapons.
Margaret smiled.
“You see enemies everywhere.”
Victor answered, “Usually because they're standing in front of me.”
Claire looked at Hannah.
“You really didn't know?”
“Know what?”
“That we were twins.”
Hannah turned toward Elena.
Her mother's silence confirmed it.
Hannah felt something inside her break.
“You had another daughter?”
Elena whispered, “I thought she died.”
Claire laughed bitterly.
“No. You left me.”
“I didn't.”
“Margaret raised me.”
Hannah looked at Margaret.
Everything shifted again.
Margaret had taken Claire.
Why?
Inheritance.
Two heirs.
The trust specified Elena's firstborn.
With twins, birth order mattered.
“Which of us was born first?” Hannah asked.
Margaret smiled.
“Claire.”
Victor immediately understood.
If true, Hannah didn't control the trust.
Claire did.
Margaret produced a birth record.
Claire: 11:47 p.m.
Hannah: 11:53 p.m.
Six minutes.
Six minutes separated two entirely different lives.
Elena shook her head.
“It's forged.”
Claire glared at her.
“You'd say anything.”
Margaret placed documents on the table.
Hospital records.
Photographs.
A nurse's statement.
Everything appeared authentic.
Hannah felt strangely calm.
“If Claire owns it, give it to her.”
Margaret's smile disappeared.
“What?”
“I never wanted it.”
Victor watched Hannah carefully.
Claire did too.
Hannah stepped closer to her sister.
“If this belongs to you, I won't fight you.”
Claire stared.
Margaret had prepared her for greed.
For violence.
For Romano arrogance.
Not surrender.
“You'd give me billions?”
“I'd give you paperwork.”
Claire almost laughed.
Hannah continued.
“But the criminal operations still end.”
Margaret's face hardened.
“You have no authority.”
“If Claire is the heir, she does.”
Everyone looked at Claire.
Margaret grabbed her arm.
“We're leaving.”
Claire pulled away.
“Why?”
“Because this is a trap.”
“No. You said Hannah would try to kill me.”
Silence.
Claire looked at Victor.
“He hasn't.”
She looked at Hannah.
“She hasn't.”
Margaret's control began slipping.
Hannah saw it.
“What else did she tell you?”
“That Elena chose you.”
Elena stepped forward.
“I thought you died during delivery.”
“She's lying.”
Margaret said it too quickly.
Claire noticed.
Hannah noticed.
Victor definitely noticed.
“Show us the original hospital record,” Victor said.
Margaret smiled.
“I did.”
“No. You showed copies.”
Victor called his investigator.
“Get records from St. Matthew's Hospital. Twenty-eight years ago. Elena Romano. Twin delivery.”
Margaret's face changed.
Just slightly.
Enough.
Then the mansion lights went out.
Victor drew his gun.
“Everybody down.”
An explosion rocked the west wing.
Glass shattered.
Security alarms screamed.
Margaret smiled in the darkness.
“You should have let me leave.”
Victor lunged.
But Margaret disappeared into smoke.
Armed men stormed the foyer.
Hannah grabbed Claire.
“Move!”
“Why are you helping me?”
“Because you're standing where bullets are flying!”
They ran.
Mia was upstairs.
Hannah realized it simultaneously with Victor.
“Mia!”
They sprinted toward the staircase.
Gunfire erupted.
Victor's men returned fire.
The grand foyer from Hannah's first weeks at the estate became a battlefield.
Furniture overturned.
Porcelain shattered.
Chandelier crystals rained onto marble.
Victor moved ahead.
Hannah followed despite his order.
They reached Mia's room.
Empty.
Sofia screamed her name.
A window stood open.
Rope hung outside.
Victor looked down.
A black SUV sped away.
Mia had been taken again.
But this time Margaret wasn't bargaining for Luca.
She wanted control.
Claire stared at the disappearing vehicle.
“She lied to me.”
Hannah looked at her.
“Yes.”
Claire's face changed.
“I know where she's going.”
Victor turned.
“Where?”
“Her house.”
“Address.”
“She doesn't use an address.”
Victor's patience vanished.
“Where?”
Claire pointed toward the northern woods.
“An abandoned convent. She raised me there.”
They mobilized immediately.
Before leaving, Hannah found something on Mia's pillow.
A drawing.
Mia had drawn Hannah and Victor holding her hands.
Three figures.
Family.
On the back were four words.
DON'T LET THEM FIGHT.
Hannah gave it to Victor.
He stared.
Then folded it carefully into his pocket.
They drove north.
Claire guided them.
The convent appeared after midnight.
Dark.
Abandoned.
Victor surrounded it.
Claire stopped Hannah.
“Margaret has tunnels.”
“Where?”
“Under the chapel.”
They entered.
No guards.
Too easy.
Victor knew it.
The chapel door stood open.
Inside, a single candle burned.
Mia's shoe rested beside it.
Hannah picked it up.
Then a speaker activated.
Margaret's voice filled the chapel.
“Claire, sweetheart, you disappointed me.”
Claire looked upward.
“You lied!”
“I raised you.”
“You stole me!”
Silence.
Then Margaret laughed.
“You finally sound like a Romano.”
Victor found stairs beneath the altar.
They descended.
A steel door waited below.
From behind it came Mia's voice.
“Hannah!”
Hannah ran.
Victor grabbed her.
“Wait.”
Mia cried again.
“Hannah!”
Victor examined the door.
Wires.
Explosive trigger.
He began disabling it.
Hannah's phone vibrated.
A message from Margaret.
ONLY ONE SISTER LEAVES.
Hannah looked at Claire.
Then another message arrived.
ASK HER WHAT SHE PUT IN YOUR CAR.
Hannah slowly turned.
Claire went pale.
Victor looked between them.
“What did you do?”
Claire backed away.
“Hannah, I didn't know—”
“Know what?”
Claire began crying.
“Margaret made me put something beneath your seat before we entered the mansion.”
Victor's expression hardened.
“What?”
Claire whispered:
“A bomb.”
May you like
At that exact moment, Victor's security radio crackled.
“Boss, someone just started Hannah's car.”
