Chapter 9 - The Reckoning
Beatriz’s face warped into a mask of pure rage. She snatched the baby from the bassinet and drew a small, concealed scalpel from her pocket, holding it close to the infant's throat.
"Back off!" Beatriz shrieked. "Turn it off, or I’ll end the bloodline right now! If I can't have him, nobody will!"
"Beatriz, no!" Elena screamed from the bed, thrashing wildly.
Gabriel froze, his heart pounding. "She’s insane, Gabriel," Rosa whispered, her eyes wide with terror. "She’ll do it."
Suddenly, the lights in the facility flickered and died, plunging the room into absolute darkness. A loud mechanical alarm began to blare.
“Warning. Facility lockdown bypassed. Main power failure.”
A shadow lunged into the room from a secondary ventilation shaft. It was Daniel. He had escaped Beatriz’s guards during the chaos. Blinded by revenge and driven completely mad by his mother's betrayal, he didn't care about the baby or the empire anymore. He wanted blood.
"Mother!" Daniel screamed in the dark.
A chaotic struggle ensued. Sounds of grunting, tearing fabric, and a sharp metal slash echoed through the pitch blackness.
May you like
Gabriel threw himself toward the bassinet, trying to shield the baby by memory. Elena managed to break one of her wrist straps, frantically reaching out into the dark, crying out for her son.
A heavy body thudded against the floor. A dying gasp followed.
