Chapter 20: The Midnight Intruder

The mansion fell into controlled chaos.

Guards moved through the corridors with silent precision. Lights flashed across the garden. Luca's voice crackled through Alexander's earpiece, sharp and calm.

Scarlett stayed in the study as ordered for exactly thirty seconds.

Then she heard a sound behind the wall.

Not in the hallway. Inside the house.

Her breath caught.

The bookshelf near the fireplace shifted slightly.

Scarlett remembered Alexander mentioning old service passages beneath the mansion. She had thought it was romantic, almost gothic. Now it was terrifying.

She backed her wheelchair slowly toward the desk, searching for something to defend herself with. Her hand closed around a brass letter opener.

The hidden panel opened.

A man stepped out wearing black gloves and a mask.

Scarlett screamed, but the sound barely left her throat before he lunged.

She swung the letter opener wildly. It caught his sleeve. He cursed and grabbed her chair, trying to drag her toward the passage.

'You should have stayed forgotten,' he hissed.

Scarlett slammed the wheel hard over his foot. He staggered. She reached for the emergency button under Alexander's desk and pressed it.

The man struck her across the face.

Pain exploded through her cheek. For one terrible second, she was back in the car accident, helpless and trapped.

Then rage saved her.

Scarlett drove the chair forward with all her strength, ramming into his knees. He fell against the desk just as Alexander burst through the door.

What happened next was fast and brutal.

Alexander crossed the room like a storm. He tore the attacker away from Scarlett and slammed him against the wall. The gun remained in his hand, but he did not need it. His fury was enough.

'Who sent you?' Alexander demanded.

The man laughed through blood. 'Ask the woman who paid for the accident.'

Scarlett went still.

Alexander's grip tightened. 'Name.'

Before the man could answer, a shot rang from the secret passage.

The intruder collapsed.

Alexander pulled Scarlett behind the desk as guards flooded the room. Luca chased into the passage, but whoever fired had already vanished into the night.

Scarlett sat shaking, blood at the corner of her lip.

Alexander knelt before her, his hands hovering, terrified to touch what had already been hurt.

'Scarlett.'

She looked at the dead man on the floor. Then at the passage. Then at Alexander.

'He said a woman paid for the accident.'

Alexander's face became stone.

Scarlett wiped the blood from her mouth with a trembling hand.

'Find her,' she whispered.

Alexander rose, and the room seemed to darken around him.

'I will.'