Chapter Ten: Level Four

Darkness swallowed the study whole. I couldn’t see anything.

For one sharp, suffocating second, nobody moved.

The transition from the high-tension argument about my past to absolute, pitch-black silence was so scary, it felt like the air had been physically sucked from the room.

The distant metallic groan of the massive industrial gates was still sliding open.

My hand remained frozen against the rigid, expensive fabric of Silas’s shirt, my fingers still clutching the collars as if anchoring myself to the only solid object left in the universe.

“Silas,” Elias’s voice sliced through the blackness, stripped completely of its usual sarcastic ease.

A second later, the pale blue glow of his encrypted tablet illuminated the room from below, casting sharp shadows across his tense face.

“The main security grid isn’t just down,” he said quickly, fingers flying across the screen. “The gates are forcing an automated evacuation loop. The firewall didn’t crash. Someone manually flipped the physical overrides from inside the estate.”

“Someone”? I questioned. “Guys that’s Evelyn…” though I couldn’t see the expression on their face towards that.

They didn’t want to believe my words.

Silas was already moving.

Even without seeing him, I recognized him instantly from the overwhelming scent of his expensive perfume.

His large hand slid down my arm, his fingers wrapping me like an iron vice around my wrist. He dragged me backward, pulling my body firmly against the solid expanse of his chest. His free arm locked around my waist, a possessive, unyielding shield that anchored me to him.

It felt strangely intimate. Like he should be thinking of a solution and all he could think of was holding me?

“Let go of me,” I whispered shakily, trying to jerk my arm back. I know I needed his warmth but I was too angry and stubborn to let that happen.

His grip tightened.

“I told you, Vienne,” he growled quietly near my ear, “you don’t move from my shadow.”

A bitter laugh escaped my throat.

“Your shadow?” I hissed. “It’s pitch black, Silas. None of us can see a thing.”

The silver half-medallion was still clutched so tightly in my fist that the sharp edges bit mercilessly into my skin, but I barely felt the pain. "What’s happening”?

Silas’s jaw tightened, the muscles bunching hard against my temple where his head was inclined. He let out a deep breath. "Someone got inside, and so Elias is finding a solution, I just need you to be calm little bird”.

Another alarm blared, a piercing, synthetic tone that cut through the low drone of the siren.

ACCESS BREACH DETECTED.

WEST WING LEVEL FOUR UNSEALED.

The automated female voice echoed through the high-end speakers overhead, detached and completely calm as it announced the collapse of the estate's inner den (The West Wing).

My stomach dropped instantly.

The West Wing. The same place Silas had warned me not to cross since the day I arrived here under the pretense of our contract.

Elias broke in… “Silas!” A long silence followed. “Vienne is right! Evelyn is behind this.”

I could feel the betrayal heartbreak from his voice.

Silas went completely, deathly still beside me. The rhythmic rise and fall of his chest ceased entirely, his muscles coiling with a terrifying, lethal tension. This time since I had been brought into his world of cold calculations and corporate dominance; genuine shock cracked through his carefully constructed armor.

Elias looked up from his tablet, the blue light catching the sudden, stark panic in his gray eyes. "That level was sealed from the central database, Silas. It requires a physical biometric override from a primary family member. Or..."

"I know," Silas said, his voice dropping into a dark, gravelly register that chilled me to the bone. He didn't finish the sentence, but the betrayal hung heavy in the air.

Evelyn.

The elegant, soft-spoken housekeeper who had served this family for years. The woman who had quietly made my tea, who had known the layout of every room.

Nothing about her felt safe anymore.

“Elias, please get the down study opened now”! “Type in the key code once you get there.”

“300211”!

“Sure bro”! “But what about her?”

“GO”

Then Elias left without asking any further question.

“Hope you aren’t leaving me here?” I asked Silas.

He gave no response and I became scared.

I yanked my wrist against his hold.

He brushed out a little laugh… “Chill little bird, I thought you were so stubborn and strong but you seem to just be stubborn but scared”. “I’m definitely not leaving you”.

I became calm. That was the first time I heard him laugh and it sounded sweet but “eww…”

“I wasn’t scared just a confirmation” I lied.

“Why me?” I whispered painfully.

“Why would you say that”. Silas interrupted.

“You just admitted my entire life is a lie,” I continued, anger finally breaking through the panic flooding my chest. “You let me believe my parents died in some tragic accident while all of you sat around knowing they were murdered!”

“And now i got contracted with you for God knows what debt and since I stepped into your world, my life has been from one misery to another”.

Pain bled through silas voice like my words hurt him “Do you think I would truly want you in pain or don’t you think all these are happening for a reason”.

His hand suddenly rose from the dark and captured my jaw firmly.

He tilted my face upward toward him.

“You think I care about boardroom shares more than keeping you breathing?”

The low intensity in his voice made my stomach tighten painfully.

I pushed both palms against his chest instinctively, trying to force space between us.

“You’re asking me to trust you,” I whispered bitterly. “But every truth I uncover just proves you’ve been hiding more.”

Silas exhaled slowly through his nose.

“Victor Laurent is not just a corrupt board member,” he said calmly. “He’s a predator who’s spent years hunting what remains of the Caelthorne legacy.”

My throat tightened.

“So are you saying you knew victor is trying to destroy me and possibly your companies and you still let him work for you”?

“Yes”!

But before I could make him split more further…

Elias stepped in… “It’s Done”

Shouting erupted somewhere downstairs, a chaotic mix of frantic commands and panicked responses.

Then—a gunshot.

The sharp, deafening crack passed through the mansion, so sudden and violent that I physically flinched, my eyes slamming shut as I pressed myself deeper against Silas’s chest. The sound of a weapon firing inside these walls made the reality of the danger crash over me like a wave of ice water.

"Damn it," Elias muttered, his teeth grinding together as he watched a series of red indicators flash across his screen. "They’re already inside the residential wing. The outer perimeter guards aren't responding.”

“They?” I asked

Silas turned toward him instantly, his decision made in a split second. The calculated, defensive predator in him took full control. "Take her”.

Elias blinked, his head snapping up.

"You’re splitting us? In the dark? Silas, if the main grid is compromised, the panic room overrides might…”

"They didn didn’t come for the servers, Elias." Silas’s voice lowered into something so cold, that it felt like it could freeze the air inside my lungs. He tightened his grip on me for a fraction of a second, his body shielding mine from the direction of the door. "They came for her.”

Before I could protest…

Silas suddenly grabbed my jaw. His long, scarred fingers were gentle but entirely unyielding, forcing my face upward so I had no choice but to look directly into his eyes.

"Listen carefully, Little Bird."

The flashing light blinked hard, predatory shadows across the sharp angles of his face, catching the intense, obsessive fire burning in his dark eyes. In this light, he looked less like the refined billionaire husband I had come to fear, and more like something dangerous and protective.

"If anything happens, you stay with Elias," he commanded, his voice vibrating directly against my skin. "You do not leave his side. You do not trust anyone else in this house tonight. Do you hear me?"

"Silas…” My voice was a breathless gasp, my hands clawing weakly at his wrists.

"Anyone," he repeated sharply, his thumb pressing firmly into my chin to drive the point home.

My breath caught in my throat. He wasn't just talking about Victor Laurent's men. He wasn't just talking about unknown intruders. He was confirming my worst fears. He was including Evelyn. The woman who had been a fixture of my daily life here was suddenly a ghost in the dark.

Another gunshot exploded downstairs, the sound significantly louder, closer, followed by the heavy, muffled thud of a body hitting the floorboards in the adjacent hallway.

Elias cursed under his breath, abandoning his tablet for a moment as he lunged toward one of the massive, floor-to-ceiling bookshelves lining the study wall. His hands moved with practiced familiarity, shoving aside a heavy bronze sculpture of a blind justice figure. Somewhere deep inside the architecture of the room, a series of heavy, industrial machinery clicked and groaned.

The massive oak bookshelf slowly, silently slid sideways, breaking the seamless line of the wall.

Behind it lay a narrow, pitch-black staircase descending steeply into the subterranean foundations of the estate. The air that drifted up from the opening was cold, smelling of concrete, dust, and old iron.

My eyes widened as I stared into the dark passage. Of course. Of course a man like Silas Vane had a hidden escape route built directly into the room where he conducted his darkest business. He had never intended to rely entirely on the mansion's visible walls.

“We would follow through here”.

"We have about thirty seconds before they breach the outer hallway."

But Silas didn’t let go of me immediately.

For one long, agonizing second, his dark eyes searched my face in the pulsing red glow of the tab. His gaze tracked the line of my jaw, the panic in my gray-blue eyes, the breath trembling on my lips—almost as if he were memorizing every single detail of my face. As if he believed this might be the last time he ever looked at me.

“Bro!! Let go she not leaving you! We need to hurry.”

Then, finally—he released me.

The sudden absence of his massive warmth, the abrupt removal of his heavy hands, felt entirely wrong. It felt terrifyingly wrong. Without his shadow covering me, I felt entirely exposed to whatever was coming through those doors.

Elias grabbed my upper arm, his grip firm and businesslike, and started pulling me backward toward the hidden staircase. But before our feet could even cross the threshold, a loud, violent crash shattered the air.

The heavy, reinforced double doors of the study burst open with a splintering roar.

Three armed men, dressed from head to toe in sleek, black tactical gear and wearing expressionless night-vision glasses stormed into the office. The crimson light caught their automatic weapon.

Everything happened at once.

Elias didn't hesitate. With a violent push. His arms locking around my body as he dragged me violently down the steep concrete steps, his body hunched over mine to avoid them seeing me.

Above us, the gunfire continued to tear through the room.

Through the narrow gap of the closing bookshelf, I heard Silas fire back. One sharp, calculated shot.

Two.

Then, a heavy, gurgling scream of a man hitting the floor.

My entire body shook violently, a uncontrollable tremor taking over my limbs as Elias practically hauled me downward, my bare feet slipping slightly on the cold concrete steps as we descended deeper into the narrow underground passage. My ears were ringing, the smell of gunpowder drifting down after us.

"What about Silas?" I gasped, my voice choked with a sudden, terrifying panic that I couldn't fully understand. Why did I care? He was the man who had locked me in a golden cage, the man who had kept my own mind a secret from me. Yet, the thought of him staying behind in that room filled me with a hollow, sickening dread.

"Elias, we can't just leave him!"

"He’ll survive," Elias said tightly, his breath coming in short.

He slammed his palm against a heavy mechanical lever, and with a definitive, booming echo, the hidden bookshelf mechanism slid shut above us, sealing the entrance.

Darkness enclosed around us instantly.

The frantic gunfire and shouting from the study above became muffled now, reduced to distant, low thuds that reached us faintly.

My chest felt tight. Too tight. The air down here felt suffocating. I forced myself to keep moving, my hands scraping against the rough concrete wall as Elias guided me deeper down the twisting corridor.

"Elias," I whispered, the word echoing softly against the narrow walls. "What is Level Four?"

Elias froze mid-step.

The sudden stillness was scarier than the alarm. In the faint amber light of the floor strips, I watched his posture go completely rigid.

He didn't turn around immediately, but his shoulders tense, his head tilting slightly as if he were debating how to answer. When he finally turned his face toward me, his expression had shifted completely—the usual mask of calm Elias was gone, replaced by a dark, heavy solemnity.

That alone terrified me more than the gunshots, more than the flashing red lights upstairs. Elias Vane was never like that.

"It’s a security designation. A restricted sector."

"Don't lie to me," I pushed, stepping closer to him, my gray-blue eyes flashing with a desperate need for truth. "Silas looked shocked. You looked terrified. What is in the West Wing? What did they just let out?"

Elias looked away, his eyes scanning the dark corridor ahead of us.

It was the wrong move. Because in that split second of hesitation, I knew. I knew it wasn't a collection of corporate files, or a vault of bearer bonds, or a server room containing the keys to the Vane empire. It was something infinitely more dangerous.

"Elias," I demanded, my voice hardening as I grabbed his forearm, forcing him to look back at me. "Tell me."

He exhaled slowly, a long, heavy breath that sounded like a man giving up a ghost. He ran a hand over his face, the amber light catching the deep lines of exhaustion etched around his eyes.

Then, finally, he spoke.

"Level Four isn't a room, Vie.. vienne”.

The faint emergency strips along the floorboards flickered violently, the amber light dying for a fraction of a second before buzzing back to life with a weak, sickly hum.

"It’s a person."