Chapter 27 - The Second Betrayal
Maya kicked through the burning debris in the lower companionway, dragging Clara toward the spiral stairs.
The heat was blistering.
Every breath scorched Maya's throat with the taste of burning plastic and vaporized diesel.
"Leave me," Clara coughed violently, her legs giving out on the brass steps. "I can't... I can't climb."
"Shut up!" Maya yelled, throwing Clara's arm over her shoulder and hauling her upward with every ounce of strength in her body. "I didn't survive drowning just to watch you die here! Move!"
They burst out onto the main deck into the freezing downpour.
The sudden contrast of icy rain against Maya's blistering skin felt like thousands of needles.
Standing on the pier forty feet away, Julian was screaming her name through the storm.
"Maya! Get off the ship! It's going to blow!"
Maya hauled Clara toward the gangway ramp.
Julian sprinted up the metal ramp, meeting them halfway, grabbing Clara by the waist to take her weight.
He looked down at his sister's face—the face he hadn't seen in twenty years.
"Clara..." Julian choked out, tears instantly washing away the soot on his cheeks. "My God... it's really you."
Clara didn't look at him with love.
She spat a mouthful of blood and rainwater directly onto Julian’s cheek.
"Traitor," Clara whispered with pure venom. "You sold us out for the trust."
Julian froze, his eyes widening in horror as he glanced from Clara to Maya.
Maya stood on the ramp, the rain plastering her hair to her skull, her eyes cold and piercing.
"Is it true, Julian?" Maya asked, her voice deadly quiet beneath the roaring sirens.
Julian’s face crumpled. "Maya... please, let's get to the car first—"
"Is it true?!" Maya screamed, stepping toward him. "Did you marry me to fulfill the Marcus Reed clause in your grandfather's trust?!"
Julian couldn't hold her gaze.
He looked down at the wet metal grating beneath their feet, his silence answering the question louder than any confession.
"I didn't know who Marcus Reed was at first," Julian stammered, his voice trembling with desperate shame. "The lawyers just gave me a name and a lineage search! I thought it was just corporate paperwork! But then... then I fell in love with you, Maya. I swear to God, I fell in love with you!"
"You used me," Maya whispered, backing away from him as if he were covered in plague. "From the very first day. You were never my savior. You were just another Vance collecting his dividend."
"Maya, listen to me—" Julian reached out to touch her.
"Don't touch me!" she shouted.
Before Julian could answer, the night shattered.
*KABOOM!*
A catastrophic explosion blew the stern of *The Sovereign Sea* clean off.
A shockwave of scorching air and flying fiberglass hurled all three of them down the metal gangway onto the wooden dock.
Maya slammed hard against the wet planks, the breath knocked from her lungs, her ears ringing with high-pitched agony.
Behind them, a massive mushroom cloud of orange fire and black smoke billowed three hundred feet into the Manhattan sky.
The yacht was ripped in half, the rear section instantly sliding beneath the churning, burning Hudson River.
Maya pushed herself up on trembling elbows.
Through the blinding rain and dancing firelight, she saw the silhouette of a black luxury sedan accelerating wildly out of the marina parking lot toward the West Side Highway.
At the wheel was Victoria Vance.
She had made it to her escape vehicle before the blast.
Julian scrambled to his feet, bleeding from a gash on his forehead, coughing violently.
He turned toward Clara, who lay unconscious on the dock planks, her pulse weak but steady.
"Maya!" Julian yelled, rushing to Clara's side. "We need an ambulance! Clara needs help!"
Maya looked at Julian.
Then she looked at the burning wreckage of the yacht.
And finally, she looked at the set of car keys lying on the dock near Julian's jacket—the keys to the SUV.
Maya didn't say a word.
She snatched the keys off the wet wood.
"Maya, what are you doing?!" Julian cried out, reaching for her.
"I'm finishing what you and your family started," Maya said.
May you like
She sprinted down the dock toward the SUV, leaving Julian kneeling in the rain beside the sister he had betrayed.
***
