Chapter 12 - The Edge of the Abyss
The bullet shattered the heavy glass of the garage’s security booth, sending sparks flying across the concrete floor.
Emergency backup lights flickered to life, bathing the subterranean parking garage in an eerie, blood-red glow. Sirens wailed overhead, their high-pitched screams bouncing off the concrete pillars.
"Get down! Stay inside the vehicle!" Marcus shouted, his gun raised as our two security guards took defensive positions behind the Maybach's reinforced doors.
Another contraction hit me—vicious, blinding, and unrelenting. I cried out, doubling over on the leather seat, clutching my stomach as agony ripped through my core. My baby was coming. Now. In the middle of an underground war zone.
Through the tinted, bulletproof windshield, a figure emerged from the shadows behind a row of parked executive SUVs.
It was Ethan.
He looked completely deranged. His clothes were soaked with rain, his face wild and contorted with manic fury. In his right hand, he clutched a heavy black semi-automatic pistol. His fingers were slick with sweat, his eyes bulging as he locked his gaze directly onto the Maybach.
Behind him stepped two armed men wearing dark tactical gear—mercenaries hired not by Ethan, but by someone with deep pockets and lethal intentions.
"Elena!" Ethan screamed, his voice distorted by madness, echoing hideously across the concrete walls. "Open the door! Open the fucking door!"
"Mr. Vance, drop the weapon!" Marcus commanded from behind the car door, his sight trained on Ethan’s chest. "Drop it or I will fire!"
"Shoot me, and my men will riddle this car with armor-piercing rounds!" Ethan shrieked, pointing his gun directly at Marcus. "I have nothing left! You took my name! You took my money! You took my entire life and threw me to the dogs! Julian Ross dropped me the second you froze the accounts! I am ruined! But you’re not walking away from this!"
Inside the car, Samuel was frantically dialing 911, his hands shaking violently. "This is Samuel Ward at Aurelia Residences! We have an armed assault in the private garage! Shots fired! The CEO is in active labor—send SWAT immediately!"
Ethan took three aggressive steps forward, raising the pistol toward the rear window where I sat trapped, helpless against the raging storm inside my own body.
"If I can't have the Aurelia empire," Ethan roared, a terrifying, psychotic grin stretching across his face as his finger tightened on the trigger, "then neither will you! Nor that bastard child inside you!"
"Ethan, don't!" a cold, authoritative voice suddenly boomed through the red mist of the garage.
A black armored SUV rammed violently through the side security gate, sending concrete debris flying into the air. The heavy vehicle screeched to a halt between Ethan’s gunmen and my car, cutting off their line of fire.
The driver’s door kicked open, and an armed security force clad in grey tactical gear swarmed out, weapons drawn.
Ethan spun around in terror. "What... who the hell are you?!"
From the passenger seat of the newly arrived SUV, a tall, imposing figure stepped out into the flashing red lights, holding a silver-tipped cane.
Victor Sterling.
"Drop your weapons, boy," Sterling’s gravelly voice commanded with absolute authority. "Before I have you erased from this earth."
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Inside the Maybach, another massive, tearing contraction tore through me. I let out an agonizing scream, my vision blurring with tears and sweat. My hand reached out, desperately clutching Samuel’s sleeve as the baby demanded her entrance into the world.
Gunfire erupted outside in a chaotic, deafening roar. Glass shattered, bullets ricocheted against steel, and through the chaos, Ethan’s wild, desperate scream tore through the gunfire as he lunged toward my door—
