Chapter 7 - The Unraveling
On the television screen, the two men worked with methodical, ruthless precision.
They severed the primary brake fluid line, leaving just enough pressure for the brakes to work for three miles—exactly enough distance to reach the treacherous, cliffside curves of the highway pass.
On the screen, Marco laughed, patted Victor on the back, and whispered something before both men slipped out through the service corridor. Exactly twelve minutes later, Alessandra was seen walking into the garage, holding her purse, heading toward her car.
The screen went black.
The silence that followed was suffocating. Not a fork moved. Not a breath was drawn.
Twenty-three family members stared in utter disbelief, their expressions contorting from shock into unadulterated disgust. The very men who had claimed to be the family’s saviors, the men who had orchestrated Luca’s public downfall, were the butchers who took Alessandra’s life.
Marco stumbled back from Luca’s chair, knocking over a crystal wine glass. Red wine spilled across the crisp white linen like fresh blood.
"Luca... listen to me, Luca, it’s not what it looks like!" Marco pleaded, his voice cracking into a high-pitched, pathetic whine. "Victor planned it! He said she was auditing the offshore foundation! She found out Victor had embezzled fifty million dollars! She was going to put him in prison, Luca! He forced me into it!"
Across the table, extreme close-up terror seized Victor Hale. Cold sweat poured down his wrinkled forehead, soaking his stiff white collar. He ripped off his dark-rimmed glasses with trembling hands, stumbling against his chair, his eyes darting wildly like a cornered animal.
"Shut up, Marco!" Victor hissed, his voice breaking into a shaky, panicked whisper. "It was an accident... it was supposed to be an accident! She wasn't supposed to die! She was just supposed to be injured enough to step down from the board!"
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👉 What lethal weapon did Luca have waiting outside the estate doors all along?
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