Chapter 8 - THE ATTACK AT SAINT AGNES
Cole pulled Lily behind a stone pillar.
Victor overturned a heavy wooden bench for cover.
Detective Ruiz called for backup.
Father Daniel moved toward the sacristy with the archive key.
Crane’s men spread through the church.
They did not fire blindly.
They wanted the ledger intact.
A voice came from the darkness.
“Victor.”
Dominic Crane stepped into the center aisle.
He wore a charcoal suit and no coat despite the winter cold.
“You should have stayed inside your mansion.”
Victor looked over the bench.
“You murdered my wife.”
Crane smiled.
“Price handled Isabella.”
“Serena opened the door.”
“You paid them.”
“Your father paid people too.”
Victor did not deny it.
Crane continued.
“We are both sons of men who built kingdoms with bodies.”
“The difference is that I am not ashamed of mine.”
Victor looked toward Lily.
She had Ethan’s blood on her dress from the earlier injury.
She had crawled across marble to protect a child no one expected her to matter to.
Crane believed power came from being unashamed of cruelty.
Victor suddenly understood the weakness inside that belief.
Crane underestimated anyone he considered powerless.
Lily reached into her pocket.
She still carried the small emergency alarm from Ethan’s nursery.
She pressed it.
Every Blackwood security device linked to the child activated simultaneously.
Cole’s phone transmitted the church location to the entire security network.
Outside, engines approached.
Crane heard them.
His smile vanished.
He raised his weapon toward Lily.
Victor moved before he thought.
He crossed the aisle and struck Crane’s arm.
The gun fired into a pillar.
Cole tackled one attacker.
Ruiz fired a warning shot and ordered everyone down.
Father Daniel rang the church bell manually.
The sound thundered through the building.
Police units entered from the front.
Blackwood security entered from the side.
Crane tried to reach the basement exit.
Lily stepped into his path.
He laughed.
“You think a nanny stops me?”
“No.”
She looked behind him.
“His wife does.”
A screen above the church’s memorial hall turned on.
Isabella’s recorded testimony began playing.
Rosa had programmed the archive system to activate when the bell and emergency signal were triggered together.
Isabella’s face filled the screen.
She named Dominic Crane.
She named Malcolm Price.
She named Serena Montigue.
She described the plan to control Ethan’s trust.
Crane stopped running.
Police surrounded him.
Victor looked up at his dead wife.
Her recorded voice filled the church.
“If Victor sees this, tell him our son must not inherit a kingdom that requires him to become cruel.”
Victor lowered his eyes.
Crane was arrested.
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But Serena remained inside the Blackwood mansion.
And Ethan was still there.
