Chapter 7 - The Final Trap
The happiness that blossomed between Lena and Julian over the next month felt like a dream.
Their relationship was no longer a secret inside Vance Manor. Mia was overjoyed, spending her days holding Lena’s hand and calling her "my Lena." Julian seemed younger, lighter, laughing freely at the dinner table and taking long weekend drives with Lena through the countryside without his usual mountain of work folders.
However, dark clouds were gathering on the legal horizon.
The grand jury trial for Richard Hayes was scheduled to begin in forty-eight hours. Lena was the prosecution's key witness—the only person who could identify the face of the lead mercenary, a notorious hitman named Marcus Kane, who had been captured outside the cafe.
If Lena testified, Hayes and Kane would go to prison for life. If she didn't, the defense would dismantle the state's case, and Hayes would walk free.
On a chilly Tuesday afternoon, while Julian was in Manhattan attending a mandatory pre-trial strategy session with the District Attorney, Lena remained at the Connecticut estate under heavy security.
Around three o'clock, Lena’s new phone rang.
She picked it up, expecting it to be Julian checking in on her. "Julian?"
"Miss Moore?" a frantic, terrified voice gasped on the line.
Lena’s blood turned to ice. It was her younger sister, Maya—the sister who hadn't spoken to her in weeks.
"Maya?!" Lena stood up from her chair in the study, her stomach dropping into a pit of terror. "Maya, where are you? What's wrong?!"
"Lena... oh God, Lena, I'm so sorry!" Maya sobbed, her voice broken by hysterical cries. "Some men... they came to my apartment! They pulled me into a van! They said... they said if you testify on Thursday, they're going to kill me!"
"No! No, no, no!" Lena screamed, panic tearing through her brain like fire. "Maya, put them on the phone! Don't hurt her!"
A cold, rough voice with a heavy accent replaced Maya’s crying. "Miss Moore. I assume you recognize the stakes now."
"Please," Lena begged, tears streaming down her face. "She has nothing to do with this! Leave her out of it!"
"You have two hours," the voice commanded coldly. "There is a silver sedan waiting at the end of the estate's south perimeter road. Leave the house alone. Do not tell Vance. Do not inform his security team. If we see a single guard or police cruiser following you, your sister dies."
The line went dead.
Lena stood in the center of the quiet study, her entire body shaking uncontrollably.
If she told Julian, his security team would launch a tactical assault—but if the kidnappers spotted them, Maya would be killed instantly. She couldn't risk her sister's life. Maya was the only family she had left in the world.
Deciding in a heartbeat, Lena grabbed a heavy winter coat, slipped out through the side conservatory doors, and sprinted into the dense woods that bordered the southern edge of the estate, dodging the automated security cameras she had learned to identify over the past weeks.
Fifteen minutes later, breathless and drenched in cold sweat, she reached the lonely dirt road at the perimeter fence.
A silver sedan sat idling under the trees.
The rear door opened, and a large man in a black mask stepped out, pointing a silenced pistol directly at her chest.
May you like
"Get in," he growled. "Or she dies right now."
Lena took a deep breath, looked back toward the towering chimneys of Vance Manor in the distance, and stepped into the darkness of the vehicle.
