“Crawl Up The Stairs,” My Husband’s Mistress Sneered At Me In My Wheelchair Before 200 Guests—Until I Stood Up And Exposed The Secret That Could Destroy Them Both...

The temperature in the room plummeted.

Elena immediately stepped in front of my chair, her posture defensive. “Detective Vance, what are you doing?”

Vance pulled his service weapon from his holster. But he didn't point it at me. Instead, he pulled the magazine from the grip, cleared the chamber, and placed the gun and the loose bullet onto my father’s desk.

“I’m neutralizing myself, Mrs. Sterling,” Vance said calmly, raising both hands to show he was unarmed. “Because if you look through the front window right now, you’ll realize we’re already surrounded.”

I wheeled myself to the curtain and pulled back the heavy fabric.

Through the dense Westchester fog, four black SUVs with tinted windows and blacked-out license plates were silently idling at the gates. Heavily equipped men in tactical gear were moving along the tree line, cutting the estate’s external security feeds.

“Who are they?” Elena gasped, pulling out her phone. “There’s no signal! The cell tower is jammed!”

“Julian’s clean-up crew,” Vance said grimly. “I didn't track Thomas Brody through police intelligence, Willa. Brody called me directly because he was terrified. He realized Julian was liquidating everyone who knew about the car accident. Mallory was supposed to die tonight too, in an orchestrated ‘suicide’ in her jail cell.”

“And you?” I demanded, staring at the detective. “Why did you help me at the gala?”

“Because your father saved my sister’s life fifteen years ago when Julian tried to frame her family for a bankruptcy fraud,” Vance answered, his voice thick with raw emotion. “I swore an oath to Thomas Sterling on his deathbed that I would protect you when the house of cards fell. But I underestimated how deep Julian’s rot went into the department. The warrant I used tonight was unauthorized. The police chief is Julian’s godson.”

The glass in the conservatory shattered downstairs.

A muffled gunshot echoed through the cavernous manor, followed by the heavy thud of a body hitting the floor.