Chapter 19 - The Last Bargain

Elena nearly collapsed.

“Sofia!”

Samuel Crane held the terrified child with one arm while smoke rolled from the windows behind him.

Alejandro moved toward the mansion.

A federal agent grabbed him.

“He has a weapon.”

“I don’t care.”

Elena stepped forward instead.

“Samuel!”

Crane looked down.

“You should have stayed missing.”

Elena shouted.

“You don’t want Sofia.”

“No.”

Crane smiled.

“I want Alejandro to understand what it feels like to watch everything disappear.”

Alejandro’s voice shook with fury.

“You touch her and there is nowhere on this planet you can hide.”

Crane laughed.

“That sounds like your father.”

Vivian arrived behind them.

She looked toward a side entrance.

“I know another staircase.”

Elena grabbed her.

“No.”

Vivian looked at her.

“You asked why I kept you alive.”

“Maybe it’s time I finally do something that deserves forgiveness.”

Before Elena could stop her, Vivian entered the burning mansion.

Upstairs, Crane forced Sofia toward the balcony railing.

Alejandro raised both hands.

“Samuel.”

“Take me.”

“That was always the idea.”

Crane called down.

“Come upstairs alone.”

Alejandro entered.

Heat filled the hallways.

Paint blistered from the walls.

He climbed the staircase.

Crane waited inside Eduardo’s old study.

Sofia stood near him.

“Daddy.”

Alejandro’s chest tightened.

“I’m here, sweetheart.”

Crane held a pistol.

The old ledger burned in the fireplace.

“You built your identity around this family.”

Crane said.

“Your father.”

“Your company.”

“Your name.”

“What happens when all of it is ash?”

Alejandro looked at Sofia.

“I still have everything that matters.”

Crane’s face twisted.

“You sound like Eduardo.”

“Maybe because he finally learned something you never did.”

“What?”

“You can inherit money.”

“You can steal power.”

“But family only exists when people choose each other.”

Crane raised the gun.

A sound came from behind him.

Vivian stepped from the hidden passage.

She struck his wrist with a fireplace poker.

The gun fired into the ceiling.

Alejandro rushed forward.

He grabbed Sofia.

Crane tackled Vivian.

The floor beneath them cracked from the fire.

“Vivian!”

Elena appeared at the doorway.

Crane stared at her.

Then the burning floor collapsed.

He disappeared into the flames below.

Vivian caught the edge with both hands.

Elena dropped to her knees.

She grabbed Vivian’s wrist.

For a second, the two sisters stared at each other.

The woman who had stolen Elena’s life.

And the woman whose life Elena never knew existed.

Vivian whispered.

“Let me go.”

Elena tightened her grip.

“No.”

Alejandro grabbed Vivian’s other arm.

Together, they pulled her up.

Seconds later, the ceiling began collapsing.

They ran.

The Castillo family escaped the mansion as flames consumed the west wing.

Outside, Elena held Sofia and Mateo.

Alejandro stood beside her.

Vivian sat on the grass watching the fire.

Federal agents confirmed Samuel Crane had not survived the collapse.

Rafael was in custody.

The evidence had been secured.

For the first time in three years, Elena was free.

Then an agent approached Alejandro.

“We found something beneath Crane’s body.”

He handed Alejandro a fire-damaged envelope.

Inside was one final document.

Alejandro read the first line.

Then looked at Elena.

“What?”

She asked.

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Alejandro’s face changed.

“My father knew you were going to disappear.”