MasukGiordano’s dark, breathless chuckle cut through the suffocating silence of the bunker. The red digital timer on the vault terminal ticked down mercilessly: 00:15... 00:10... 00:05... "Press it, Eleanora," Giordano taunted, his voice smooth and cold as steel, despite the blood dripping down his temple. "Go on. Do it." "Burn in hell, both of you!" Screaming in unhinged, manic rage, Eleanora slammed her trembling palm onto the master execution button. Nothing blew up. No gas pipes ruptured. No seismic shockwave shook the concrete floor. Instead, the screens on both the EMP briefcase and the vault terminal flickered violently, glitching into cascading lines of bright crimson code. A massive surge of hijacked power burst through the roof vents, projecting a blinding, gigantic golden hologram high into the stormy ocean sky above the island. It was a glowing, ancient Chinese character for marriage: 囍. Eleanora stumbled back, her eyes wide with unadulterated horror as she stared up thro
Vito stood motionless in the broken doorway, his chest heaving under his tactical vest. The dim red emergency light washed over his mud-stained jaw and the blood splattered across his neck. His dark eyes locked onto Eleanora, ignoring the ticking red numbers flashing on the cart beside her. "Step away from the console, Eleanora," Vito growled, his voice a low, dangerous rumble. Eleanora let out a high, bitter laugh that echoed off the damp concrete walls. "Or what, Vito? You will shoot your own mother?" "You stopped being my mother the day you faked your death and abandoned me," Vito spat, his voice cracking with a lifetime of buried rage as he took a heavy step into the room. "You staged your own bloody murder, left me as a child in that empty house, and disappeared. You never loved me. You never even saw me as a son! And Victoria, you didn’t even care about her either!” Beside Giordano, Victoria’s breath hitched. She blinked through the haze of her dizziness, her brow furrowing
Victoria’s hand slipped from the cold doorframe as her legs gave out completely. Exhaustion, severe pregnancy nausea, and blood loss crashed over her at once. Across the room, Eleanora stood over Alexander’s bleeding body, her gun raised. Before Eleanora could pull the trigger, a thunderous explosion blew the main doors off their hinges! Smoke, fire, and concrete dust filled the hall. Giordano burst through the smoke like an unhinged demon. He fired his shotgun, dropping three guards in seconds, then threw the empty gun into another guard's chest and broke his neck with his bare hands. He saw Victoria sitting on the floor. "VICTORIA!" Victoria tried to shout at him to run, but her voice died in her weak throat. Giordano ran toward her. But in that exact second, Eleanora stepped out from the dark smoke behind him and smashed a heavy metal baton right into the back of his head! CRACK! Giordano’s eyes rolled back, and he hit the floor hard, blacking out instantly. Eleanora snapp
Victoria looked around as the sirens wailed louder, the deafening screech echoing off the cold concrete walls and bathing the underground bunker in red, flashing light. Alexander abruptly stood up, his jaw clenched, his eyes darting frantically toward the door. "What the hell is going on?!" Eleanora barged right back into the room, her spotless white coat swishing against her boots as she hissed, "They have arrived." Victoria raised a brow, a cold, breathless thought flashing through her mind, “Well, that was quick.” Alexander frowned, stepping back from Victoria's chair, his heart racing. "Who are 'they'?" "Vito and Giordano, you dimwit!" Eleanora snapped, her eyes dark with pure fury. She pulled a sleek handgun from her coat and pointed it toward the exit. "Hurry, move Victoria. We need to get out of here before they get close!" Alexander hesitated, looking down at Victoria's pale, trembling frame. "But... she hasn't eaten." "Well, she didn't want to eat!" Eleanora hissed, wa
Alexander burst back through the heavy iron door just as Eleanora yanked the silver spoon from Victoria’s locked jaw, a dark streak of blood trickling from Victoria’s cracked lip onto the damp floor. "Get your hands off her!" Alexander shouted, his voice echoing off the cold cement as he shoved the two massive guards backward, breaking their crushing grip on Victoria’s hair and shoulders. Victoria slumped forward into her chains, gasping for air, her chest heaving violently as she spit the bitter taste of metallic soup onto Eleanora’s spotless white shoes. Her head pounded from the sudden rush of pregnancy-induced nausea, her hands trembling uncontrollably inside the steel cuffs. "Alexander, know your place!" Eleanora snapped, wiping her shoe with a linen handkerchief, her eyes flashing with cold disgust. "She needs to be fed. I will not have my grandchild starving in this basement because of your weak stomach." "I said get out!" Alexander growled, stepping directly between Eleano
In the high-tech command center in downtown New York, heavy screens covered every single wall. Maps flashed with bright red dots, satellite feeds zoomed in on dark ocean waters, and radios buzzed with non-stop emergency chatter. Kany stood right in front of the largest glass table, her hands resting flat against the cool surface as her sharp eyes scanned a pulsing signal on the screen. "I found her!" Kany shouted, her voice cutting straight through the noise in the room like a sharp knife. Vito rushed over, leaning right over Kany's shoulder, his breathing fast and tight. "Are you a hundred percent sure, Kany? How?" "It's the necklace," Kany replied, tapping the glass display where a blue beacon was flashing. "Victoria is still wearing that necklace Alexander gave her! I managed to hack into Alexander's private satellite frequency, and the embedded signal just pinged!" "Where is it pointing?" Vito asked, his eyes widening as the satellite map zoomed in. "Out in open waters," Kan
The sharp, rhythmic clinking of designer stiletto heels shattered the pristine silence of the DanTech corporate reception lobby. Victoria’s grand entry struck the room like a sudden drop in atmospheric pressure, instantly radiating an aura of absolute dominance that left the employees frozen in pla
Fifteen years ago“Dad, does mummy hate us?”Eight-year-old Victoria asked, clutching the white and silver-studded teddy bear designed specifically for her by her father, Damien De Luca. Smiling down at his daughter, whose gray eyes shimmered with innocence, Damien crouched to her height.“Honey, m
“...we’ve got news on your father’s death.”The cold night air outside Helms Cove hit Victoria like a slap. She didn't gasp or scream. She just stood there by the open door of her car, her silver-gray eyes fixing on Kany."Get in," Victoria said, her voice dropping to a flat, hard whisper.The mome
Friday night. 8:58 PM.The air outside Helms Cove was freezing. At exactly nine o'clock, Victoria stepped inside. Her crimson leather dress was sleek, simple, and fit like a second skin. She scanned the empty room until she spotted Giordano in a corner booth.He had a quiet, relaxed posture, comple







