Chapter 2 - Echoes of the Past
The tension in the grand library felt like a physical weight crushing down on everyone present. The bodyguard, Marcus, kept his weapon leveled at Preston, who stood breathing heavily near the shattered remains of the mahogany lectern. Blood dripped from Preston’s chin onto his white collared shirt, but his eyes were filled with an unhinged, trapped energy.
Dario didn't let go of Camilla's collar. He pulled her up until her toes barely brushed the plush Persian carpet.
"I'm waiting, Camilla," Dario said, his voice terrifyingly calm.
"It was the estate debt!" Camilla sobbed, her hands clutching at Dario's wrist as she tried to relieve the pressure on her throat. "Five years ago, before your father passed... Preston had gambled away twenty million dollars of the corporate treasury! He forged your father's signature on off-shore accounts!"
"You lied to me!" Dario shouted, shaking her slightly. "You told me Elena left because she couldn't handle my military deployments! You told me she took cash from the family safe and ran off with another man!"
"Preston made me say it!" Camilla cried, her voice echoing off the high ceilings. "Elena found out about the embezzled funds! She went to the study that night to confront Preston with the audit papers. She threatened to call you while you were stationed overseas!"
Dario felt a cold, sickening shock wash over his chest. For five years, he had lived with the bitter memory that his beloved wife had abandoned him and their two-year-old child out of selfishness. He had buried his grief under layers of cold ice, pouring his energy into his military security firm, shutting off his heart to everyone—including little Elsie, who bore her mother's bright blue eyes.
"What happened to her, Camilla?" Dario demanded, his thumb pressing hard against the platinum ring in his palm. "Where is Elena?"
Camilla turned her eyes toward Preston, her face pale with terror. "He followed her down to the coastal highway. He jammed her steering column at the gas station before she left the estate! He meant to scare her... he meant to cause a small crash so he could steal the audit files back from her car!"
"You're a lying bitch!" Preston screamed, taking a step toward Camilla despite the gun pointed at his chest. "She's lying, Dario! She was right there with me! She helped me stage the whole thing!"
"I didn't know you cut her brake lines, Preston!" Camilla shrieked back, her composure completely shattering. "I thought you were just following her! When her car went off the cliff at Dead Man's Point, Preston climbed down the rocks before the police arrived. He came back to the house an hour later... covered in seawater and blood. He handed me that ring and told me if I ever mentioned it to anyone, he'd make sure I went down as an accomplice!"
Dario lowered Camilla slowly until her feet hit the floor, though he did not let go of her shirt. His breathing was heavy, deliberate. Every piece of the lie that had governed his life for half a decade was crumbling into dust before his eyes.
"He went down to the wreckage before the police got there?" Dario asked, his voice dropping to a whisper that sent chills down the spine of everyone in the room.
"Yes!" Camilla nodded frantically, tears smearing her makeup across her bruised face. "He took the ring off her finger so no one could identify the body if it washed ashore! He wanted the police to think she ran away and staged her own disappearance! He kept the ring in my safe-deposit box, but last week... last week he brought it to the house because he wanted to sell the sapphire on the black market to pay off his new debts!"
Dario turned his head slowly to look at Preston.
Preston dropped the brass letter opener. It hit the floorboards with a dull clatter. His face was devoid of color. "Dario... listen to me. We're brothers. Our father built this company together. Elena was going to ruin the family name! She was going to put me in prison!"
"She was my wife," Dario said.
"She was an outsider!" Preston shouted back, desperation turning his voice into a jagged rasp. "She didn't care about the Cross empire! I did it for us, Dario! I kept the business solvent while you were playing soldier in the desert!"
Dario turned to Marcus, the bodyguard standing near the door. "Marcus. Take Elsie upstairs to her quarters. Lock the security doors. Do not let anyone in or out of the main house."
"Daddy?" Elsie's small voice came from behind the bodyguard's legs. She was holding a small plush bear, her large eyes wide with confusion and fear. "Is Mommy coming home?"
Dario felt a sharp knife twist in his heart. He looked down at his daughter, forcing his face to soften into a warm, protective expression. "Go upstairs with Marcus, sweetheart. Daddy is fixing everything right now. I promise."
Marcus gently ushered the young girl out into the grand hallway, locking the heavy mahogany library doors behind them with a heavy iron click.
Now, only Dario, Preston, and Camilla remained in the wrecked library.
Dario let go of Camilla. She collapsed into a heap onto the ruined carpet, sobbing uncontrollably against the broken picture frames.
Dario walked slowly toward Preston. He didn't rush. He walked with the heavy, deliberate stride of a predator that had finally cornered its prey after a five-year hunt.
"You took her from me," Dario said, stopping three feet away from his stepbrother. "You took her from Elsie. And you made me believe she didn't love us."
"Dario, please..." Preston stammered, backing away until his spine hit the tall glass bookcases lining the far wall. "I'll give you everything! My shares in the company, the land in Cayman, the offshore accounts! Just don't call the federal authorities! We can handle this inside the family!"
"There is no family," Dario said.
He reached into his jacket, pulled out his encrypted satellite phone, and dialed a ten-digit number he had saved for five years—the direct line to the State Special Investigations Division.
He placed the phone on speaker and set it on the polished mahogany table beside them.
"This is Special Agent Miller," a crisp voice barked through the phone speaker.
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"Miller," Dario said, his voice unyielding. "This is Dario Cross. I am holding Preston Cross and Camilla Vance at my estate. I have the physical evidence and full verbal confessions regarding the murder of Elena Cross five years ago. Send every unit you have."
Preston's eyes went wide. Seeing his entire life end in a single moment, he let out a guttural scream, grabbed a heavy bronze statue off the side table, and lunged directly at Dario's throat.
