Chapter 5 - THE ESCAPE FROM THE UNDERGROUND The first gunshot echoed through the corridor.
Laurent ducked.
Mateo pulled Isabella behind a steel support column.
"Stay behind me."
Footsteps approached.
Fast.
Organized.
Not ordinary criminals.
A private military team.
Isabella held the ledger against her chest.
For years, fear had been her default emotion.
But something was changing.
She was still afraid.
She simply refused to let fear control her.
Mateo fired twice toward the corridor.
The attackers retreated.
"There's another exit," Laurent said.
He led them through an old maintenance passage.
The tunnel smelled of stone and dust.
Isabella stumbled.
Mateo caught her.
"I'm okay."
"Are you?"
She looked at him.
"No."
Then she tightened her grip on the ledger.
"But I'm going anyway."
They reached a hidden service elevator.
The doors opened.
A man stood inside.
Mateo immediately raised his weapon.
The man lifted both hands.
"Don't shoot."
It was Laurent's security chief.
He had been working for Silas.
The betrayal nearly cost them their lives.
Mateo disarmed him.
They escaped through an underground garage.
An armored vehicle waited.
As they sped away, the bank disappeared behind them.
Isabella looked at Geneva's lights.
She expected to feel relief.
Instead she felt something colder.
Purpose.
The ledger had changed the rules.
They were no longer simply protecting an inheritance.
They were carrying evidence capable of destroying one of the most powerful criminal empires in America.
Mateo looked at her.
"You still want to go back?"
Isabella nodded.
"I want the truth."
"Even if the truth destroys everything?"
She looked out the window.
"Everything I thought I had was already destroyed."
May you like
She turned toward him.
"Now I want to find out what survived."
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