Chapter 3 - The Crypt of Secrets
The air inside the cathedral cellar smelled of damp stone and centuries of unlit wax. Dust motes drifted in the single shaft of sunlight penetrating an iron grate high in the vaulted brick ceiling. Julian’s hand froze around the latch of the reinforced door.
""My mother?"" Julian’s voice was barely an echo. The image of Lady Catherine Vance—impeccable, ruthless, the matriarch of the multi-billion-dollar Vance Holdings—flashed before his eyes. Catherine had orchestrated his entire life, including his engagement to Victoria Sinclair. Seven years ago, when Elena Vance had vanished overnight, Catherine had laid a hand on his shoulder and claimed Elena took a twenty-million-dollar buyout to disappear forever.
Julian had believed her. He had hated Elena for seven years, pouring his grief into corporate warfare and loveless alliances.
""She warned us,"" Leo said, his lip trembling as he gripped Maya’s tiny hand. Maya hadn't uttered a sound since the glass shattered; she simply stared at Julian, clutching the hem of his ruined coat with sticky fingers. ""She told me, 'If the fire finds us, take your sister to the cathedral on the ninth. Julian will be at the altar. He is the only man in the city who can stand against the Vance name.'""
A heavy blow struck the outside of the cellar door. The iron groaned within its ancient frame.
Clang.
""Julian Vance,"" a calm, amplified voice spoke through the wood. It was an unfamiliar accent, clipped and professional. ""Open the gate. The matriarch requested that you return to the estate immediately. The children do not concern you. Give them to us, and your inheritance remains intact.""
The mention of the inheritance turned Julian's stomach. For nearly a decade, he had played the dutiful heir, dancing to his mother's meticulous choreography. Now, looking down at Leo's eyes—so unmistakably Elena's, with that stubborn, brilliant ring of green around the iris—the veneer of his entire life shattered.
""We have to go deeper,"" Julian murmured. He slipped off his tuxedo jacket, wrapping it around Maya’s bare shoulders to shield her from the subterranean chill. ""The old city tunnel connects through the furnace room.""
He guided the children through the labyrinth of discarded pews, stone coffins of long-dead bishops, and rusted heating pipes. Behind them, the shriek of metal grinding against metal signaled that the door was yielding.
Julian found the recessed iron door set into the foundation wall. He had found it as an altar boy twenty years ago, exploring places he shouldn't have been. He shoved the rusty bolt back with his palm, skin scraping raw against iron, and pulled.
A dark, narrow stairway spiraled into the city’s forgotten drainage network.
""Hold my hand,"" Julian told Leo. ""And hold onto Maya.""
May you like
They slipped into the pitch darkness just as the cellar door burst open above with a crash of splintered timber. Julian pulled the tunnel hatch shut and engaged the deadbolt from within, leaving them suspended in absolute blackness.
Then, from the dark ahead, a phone began to vibrate against the stone wall.
