All Chapters of Beneath His Billion-Dollar Lies : Chapter 11 - Chapter 20

"Ghosts on the Screen"Carina's POVShe is dead, I said-- but the woman on the television is smiling at me. My heart stops. The room is narrow, dumbly silent except that the screen flickers all over its walls lightening Vanessa. She’s there, alive. Cold. Perfect. Each twist of her lips is a victory.Good evening, the people, good evening, she says over the broadcast, and her voice is smooth and cruel. “Did you miss me?”Dante freezes next to me. His mouth crimps and his eyes are fixed on the screen as though he was looking at a ghost. In the background, there is a woman behind Vanessa. I choked to see her- Alina. My sister. The one who bled on my hands.She’s alive.“What's the hell…” Dante whispers, getting nearer. “That’s impossible. She—”“Did she die?” Like she heard him, Vanessa cuts in. “Funny word, isn’t it? Some people burn, others rise.”My chest tightens. Fingers dig into the couch. The face of Alina is a blank one; it is almost robotic. She doesn’t blink. Doesn’t breathe.

"Truth in Ashes"Carina's POV“Tell me you didn’t,” I said in low voice.The eyes of Dante are a wall, I can not even look at him. It is pouring outside, the lights flickering due to that gunshot. I am trembling looking at him in the corridor, gun down, smoke curling. The house is odorous of metal and of fear.“Where’s she?” I choke. “Where’s Emily?” He doesn’t even say anything. His silence is cut through me like a knife.“Dante!” I scream, rushing past him. The hallway is empty—no Emily. Only a few wet footprints towards the back door. I pursue them, and my heart is a-beating in my chest. They halt on the threshold, and the door is already open. Rain falls and drowns the floor. “She’s gone,” I whisper. Dante comes behind me, with a low, rough voice. “I’ll find her.” Touch her, I say, and turn about. “Not after what that girl said.” His jaw tightens. Carina, you know not what you are talking about. “Oh, I think I do.” I shove him in the chest. You brought Vanessa back, you sa

"The Mansion of Lies"Dante's POVAnd her scream cut like a knife to my heart. I don’t think so. I just ran. My feet beat the marble, my breathing bitter in the stuffy air. The torch is flickering, cutting off the shadows, which appear to follow me. I hear all Carina--she breaks--it echoes back along the hall.“Carina!” I shout, turning the corner. Nothing but darkness. Then, a shape moves. A man leaps out at me on the flank--hooded, armed. I wrench his wrist, bang him to the wall and the gun falls to the floor. I grab it and fire once. His body drops.Another guard runs out of the corridor. I cower behind a pillar, shoot another--clean, one. The sound that follows the echo is even more silent than the echo itself.Blood pools on the marble. I step over it, heart racing. The air is smelling of smoke and Vanessa perfume. She’s close.Then I hear it--a distorted voice at a distance. You never learnt to listen, Dante.Her voice slaves through background speakers on the walls. I turn arou

"Ashes of Loyalty "Dante's POVNothing burns up but guilt. That lives forever.” Even when I woke up the scent of smoke lingered. Every breath came painfully to my chest. I winked, and watched a wavering light over me. The ceiling was not burning, it was a cheap bulb hooked to a wire. I was alive. I had bandages wrapped round my ribs, and my arm in a sling. The sound of a faint beep of a heart monitor reverberated in the corner. The clinic of the broken and half-dead, which is the hiding place of Marco in the underground clinic. My voice came out rough. “How long?” Marco raised his eyes out of his desk, with a weary look. “Two days. You almost didn’t make it.” Two days. The thought of fire, of screams of Carina, the smile of Vanessa flashed through my head. “Carina?” “She’s safe,” Marco said. And she was the one who took you out of that mansion. Nearly passed out doing it.” I sighed to myself, and the burden in my breast was more than the bandages. “She should’ve left

"The Red Message"Carina's POVMy name was spelt in blood but I was not the murderer.I had to catch my breath when I happened to see that photo on the news. Like a title, like a freaking title, blood spattered, all red and scrambled: C A R I N A. My name is, literally, my name. Guess I was cursed.I dropped the remote. “No… no, this can’t be happening.”Within a moment Dante was there, with his hand upon my shoulder. “They’re framing you.”I turned to him, my eyes wide. “They’ve already done it! The police here will take me away. For us.”With a low, tight voice, he shook his head. “I won’t let them.”And his words could not soothe the fire that burned my heart. My heart was jumping as it would faint. “Vanessa planned this. Her wish is that I should be out of the way before she is married.Dante’s jaw tightened. Then away we will go before she can play it out.We got as much as we could steal, cash, passports, a burner phone, and disappeared into the night. Each street-lamp seemed to