Chapter 13 - Victoria's Final Gambit
While federal agents secured the ballroom and arrested Victoria's legal co-conspirators, a commotion broke out near the service elevator in the east wing. Victoria had used a hidden razor in her sleeve to slice through the tactical zip-ties during the transit to the transport van.
She slipped into the subterranean wine cellar, racing toward the private reinforced vault where she had stored twenty million dollars in bearer bonds and forged foreign passports. When she reached the titanium door, she found Zachary standing in the shadows, leaning against the concrete frame with his arms folded.
"Step aside, Zachary!" Victoria snarled, pulling a small silver Derringer pistol from her garter strap and aiming it at his chest. "I built you! I gave you this life! Get out of my way or I will put a bullet through your heart!"
"You didn't build me, Victoria; you broke me into pieces and hoped I would never learn how to put myself back together," Zachary said softly, not moving an inch. "Shoot me if you want, but that vault door was re-keyed by the FBI thirty minutes ago."
Victoria screamed in absolute rage, pulling the trigger with hysterical force. CLICK.
The firing pin struck an empty chamber; Zachary had quietly removed the miniature cartridges from her dressing table before we left the estate that morning. Victoria stared at the useless firearm in utter disbelief as the weapon slipped from her trembling fingers and clattered onto the cold concrete floor.
"You thought of everything, didn't you?" she wept, sinking onto her knees among the dusty wine racks, her vanity completely destroyed. "You spent five years plotting to destroy your own mother."
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"You were never my mother, Victoria," Zachary said, looking down at her with sorrowful finality. "You were just the warden of a prison I finally escaped."
Federal agents rushed down the stone stairs, pinning Victoria to the floor and securing her with heavy iron chains. Zachary turned his back on her, walking up the stairs toward the light of the grand foyer without looking back for a single second.
