CHAPTER 4: SHATTERED ILLUSIONS
The blast threw Clara backward, but Julian’s powerful arm caught her before she hit the floor.
Alarms instantly shrieked through the mansion, a deafening wail of impending doom.
“Get down!” Julian roared, shoving her and Leo beneath the heavy oak table.
Gunfire erupted from the front courtyard, loud and rapid.
Leo screamed silently, his hands covering his ears not against the noise, but against the vibrating shockwaves.
Clara pulled the boy into her chest, burying his face in her shoulder as she trembled.
Julian stood up, pulling a heavy black handgun from the holster hidden beneath his tailored jacket.
The gentle father was completely gone.
In his place stood the ruthless head of the Vance family, eyes completely dead and focused on the threat.
“Do not leave this room, Clara,” Julian ordered, racking the slide of his weapon.
“Julian, what is happening?” she cried out, her voice cracking with terror.
He looked back at her, his expression a terrifying mix of rage and desperate protection.
“The past,” Julian said coldly. “And I will kill every last one of them before they touch a single hair on your head.”
He turned and kicked the heavy mahogany door open, stepping out into the war zone.
Clara clutched Leo tightly, signing frantic words of comfort against his back.
But the gunfire was getting closer.
Heavy boots stomped down the hallway, and they didn’t belong to Julian’s men.
The playroom door suddenly splintered open, revealing a man with a scarred face and a loaded rifle.
He saw Clara and grinned, a sick, twisted smile that made her blood run entirely cold.
“Well, well,” the intruder sneered. “Looks like Vance found himself a pretty little replacement.”
