Chapter 12 - The Safehouse in Montreal
""Take the Champlain Bridge exit. Do not stop at the toll booths; the transponder in the sedan will clear you,"" Gabriel Chen’s voice was completely calm, devoid of panic. ""Drive straight into the underground parking of the grain silo district. Bay 14. Move.""
Forty minutes later, Maya guided the battered sedan down a concrete ramp into a dimly lit, disused industrial complex on the outskirts of Montreal. As soon as the car stopped in Bay 14, three individuals in sterile surgical gowns emerged from behind a heavy plastic curtain.
Before Maya could unbuckle her seatbelt, the passenger door was yanked open. Gabriel Chen—a tall, silver-haired man in an impeccably pressed three-piece suit—stepped forward, checking Arthur’s carotid pulse with two steady fingers.
""Type O-negative, three units ready,"" Gabriel commanded, gesturing to the medics who swiftly transferred Arthur onto a mobile gurney. ""Get him into the clean room. Bullet grazed the hepatic artery; he's bleeding internally.""
""Will he survive?"" Maya asked, stumbling out of the car, her legs shaking so violently she had to lean against the hood for support.
Gabriel turned his sharp, calculating gaze toward her. For a moment, he examined her face, lingering on her eyes and the sharp cut of her jawline. A look of quiet, solemn recognition crossed his features.
""He is Arthur Sterling, Miss Cross,"" Gabriel said formally. ""He has survived worse than a puncture wound. But you... you look precisely like your mother did the night we smuggled her out of Genoa.""
Maya froze. ""You knew my mother?""
Gabriel opened the door to an adjacent office, gesturing for her to enter. ""Your mother was the only person Dorian Cross ever feared. And she spent her final breath ensuring that Arthur would be the guardian of your legacy, not Dorian.""
He poured two glasses of amber liquid from a crystal decanter and placed one in front of her. ""Drink it. You will need your strength for what comes next.""
Maya pushed the glass away. ""What comes next is an explanation. I have spent my whole life being lied to by every person I loved. My father, my sister, my husband. Who am I, Gabriel?""
May you like
Gabriel took a slow sip, then walked over to a steel wall safe, opening it to reveal a single, thick leather dossier marked with the Sovereign Syndicate seal.
""You are not the heiress to an empire, Maya,"" Gabriel said gravely. ""You are the key to its destruction.""
