"She Broke Open the Coffin—Then the Man Inside Heard His Wife’s Voice. 🕵️‍♂️

“Shoot them!” Emily screamed, losing all her composure, her eyes wild with murderous greed. “Dominic, shoot him!”

Dominic pulled a small snub-nosed revolver from his tuxedo jacket, aiming it straight at Julian’s chest.

“If I’m going to prison, Julian, you’re coming to the grave with me!” Dominic roared.

Before Dominic could pull the trigger, Sarah lunged forward.

With the lightning speed of a woman who had spent years fighting for survival on the streets, Sarah grabbed a heavy silver ice bucket from the nearest table and slammed it directly into Dominic’s face.

CRACK!

Dominic let out a bloody yell, dropping the revolver as he stumbled backward into the champagne tower. Hundreds of crystal glasses crashed down around him in a cascading explosion of glass and foam.

Emily turned and sprinted toward the rear service stairs, clutching a heavy leather briefcase containing the offshore bearer bonds.

“Sarah, stay with Clara!” Julian ordered, drawing his weapon as he chased Emily out the door.

“Not a chance!” Sarah yelled back, kicking off her high heels and sprinting right behind him up the stairs.

They burst onto the rain-slicked rooftop helipad.

The wind blew violently, tossing rain into their faces as the blades of a waiting private helicopter began to roar to life in the dark sky above.

Emily was frantically pulling herself up the helicopter’s landing strut, screaming at the pilot to lift off.

“Emily!” Julian shouted over the deafening roar of the rotors. “It’s over!”

Emily turned on the narrow ledge, her eyes filled with pure, sociopathic hatred. She pulled a hidden derringer pistol from her garter belt and aimed it straight at Sarah, who was running up the wet ramp.

“You ruined everything, you pathetic little maid!” Emily shrieked, pulling the trigger.

BANG!

Julian threw his body in front of Sarah, taking the bullet directly in his left shoulder.

“Julian!” Sarah screamed in terror.

Julian gritted his teeth through the searing pain, grabbing Sarah with his right arm to keep her safe, while firing a single precise shot into the helicopter’s tail rotor.

Sparks flew wildly as the rotor shattered. The helicopter spun violently out of control, crash-landing into the reinforced safety netting at the edge of the rooftop.

Emily slipped on the rain-drenched metal edge. She let out a bloodcurdling scream as her feet slid out from beneath her, her briefcase of stolen bearer bonds plummeting twenty stories into the abyss below.

She dangled by her fingertips over the edge of the skyscraper, forty stories above the streets of Chicago.

“Julian! Help me!” Emily shrieked, her fingers slipping against the wet steel. “Save me! I’m your wife!”

Julian stood at the edge, blood soaking through the shoulder of his black tuxedo jacket. He looked down at the woman who had lied to him for three years, who had tried to bury her own sister alive, and who had just shot him.

He didn't offer his hand.

“You stopped being my wife the moment you put an innocent girl in a box,” Julian said coldly.

Before Emily could fall, two federal marshals leaped over the safety barrier, grabbing her by her wrists and hauling her bleeding, screaming frame back onto the concrete roof, slapping heavy steel handcuffs around her wrists.

Julian turned away, his vision swimming as the blood loss caught up to him. His knees buckled.

Sarah caught him instantly, taking his heavy weight into her arms, bringing him gently down onto the wet concrete floor.

“Julian! Stay with me!” Sarah sobbed, pressing her hands tightly over the bullet wound on his chest, blood seeping through her fingers. “Look at me, Julian!”

Julian looked up into her hazel eyes, a weak, beautiful smile touching his pale lips.