Just then, a subordinate’s frantic report burst from the monitor. “Ms. Griffiths! It’s Miguel! He’s leading a force—he blew the mountain gate wide open! They’re storming the base! There are too many of them, and they’re cutting through everyone in their path. They came armed for total destruction!”
“Miguel?” Maxine’s voice trembled with disbelief. She hadn’t seen this coming and hadn’t prepared for a battle.
“What do we do, Ms. Griffiths?” the subordinate shouted, desperation bleeding through the static.
After a tense beat, Maxine’s voice came back, sharp and authoritarian. “Tell everyone to fight with everything they’ve got. Hold Miguel at any cost!”
She paused and then pivoted to Elliana and Cole. “Elliana, Cole, new terms. Take Sophie and Aubrie now. I’ll even give you back your daughter. Just stay out of my fight with Miguel today.”
Maxine was ruthless but pragmatic. If Elliana and Cole sided with Miguel, her subterranean empire would collapse.
Elliana and Cole exchanged only a brief, resolute glance. They had no intention of stepping aside. Now was the perfect moment to finish Maxine and end her terror once and for all.
Maxine’s voice went cold. “Decide wisely. If you interfere, I will have Sophie and Aubrie shot immediately, and I will strangle your daughter myself.”
She switched her tone and appealed to Aubrie. “Aubrie, while I’ve kept you locked in this dungeon and made you suffer all these years, you know the family rules better than anyone. By those rules, you should have been executed long ago. It was our blood ties that spared you. The same mercy keeps Sophie breathing. You would not help outsiders destroy me in my weakest hour, would you?”
Elliana’s and Cole’s hands clenched until their knuckles turned white. They would not yield. A temporary return of their daughter meant nothing if Maxine lived to hunt them again. Only killing her would make their family safe for good. But the choice was brutal. Sophie’s and Aubrie’s lives hung by a fraying thread. Maxine did not bluff when pushed.
“Elliana, Cole, just agree to her terms,” Aubrie said at last, her voice hollow with resignation. “Maxine is right. She spared us. As head of the Griffiths family, she enforces the rules. By those rules, Sophie and I should have died years ago. The fact that we are still breathing is her mercy.”
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“Fine. We agree,” Elliana and Cole said in unison.
Their surrender was not gratitude. It was a forced compromise, a painful concession to buy a sliver of hope.
A relieved hiss ran through Maxine before she said into the speakers, “Hand Sophie and Aubrie over to Cole. Empty the dungeon. Everyone, go stop Miguel!”
The iron cage swung open.
Aubrie and Sophie were too weak to stand, let alone walk, so Elliana and Cole each took one of them, supporting their frail bodies as the last of Maxine’s followers hurried out of the dungeon.
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