THE ALLIANCE
585 Words
CHAPTER 6
Back in New Jersey, Maria couldn’t sleep.
She kept thinking about the file Clarissa had shown her.
The pictures. The contracts. The secrets.
She confronted Steve the next day.
“Is it true?” she asked quietly.
Steve nodded slowly. “I was young. I made terrible choices. But I’ve spent the last five years fixing them.”
Maria didn’t speak for a long time.
“I need time,” she finally said.
He respected that.
But that night, Maria went to her old high school.
In the library basement, she searched for someone.
An old man in a wheelchair greeted her.
“Maria?” he asked. “I thought you were dead.”
Mr. Ramirez had been her late mother’s friend—a retired historian who knew secrets about everyone in the city.
He handed her a box. “Your mother left this before she died.”
Inside were letters. Notes. Maps.
And a journal.
Maria’s mother had once worked for General Benson.
She had discovered the blueprint. And warned him about Clarissa long before she married Steve.
“She died in a car crash, remember?” Mr. Ramirez said. “But the brakes were cut.”
Maria’s world began to spin.
Maria met Steve in the company’s rooftop garden.
“My mother died because of your family,” she said.
Steve looked like the wind had been knocked out of him.
“I swear I didn’t know,” he replied. “Clarissa… she did this.”
Maria nodded, tears threatening. “We’ve both lost so much.”
They held each other in silence.
Below them, however, Harold had been released.
A loophole in the arrest.
And he wasn’t alone.
Jayden was back.
And this time, they had help.
The city’s mayor.
Mayor Ford was a longtime rival of the Bensons.
He believed the oil company was responsible for his brother’s death in the refinery fire years ago.
He agreed to fund Harold and Jayden’s crusade to destroy Benson Industries.
Their first target? The annual charity gala.
Steve was planning to propose publicly to Maria that night.
But Maria had doubts. “What if this never ends?” she asked him.
Steve replied, “It will. When we take the fight to them.”
Maria finally smiled. “Then let’s give them a show.”
The hall sparkled with lights and music. Celebrities, politicians, and journalists gathered.
Maria wore a red gown. Steve was in a black tux.
He took the stage. “Tonight isn’t just about charity—it’s about redemption.”
Then he turned to Maria. “You taught me love. Humility. I want forever with you.”
He dropped to one knee.
The crowd gasped.
Suddenly—all the lights went out.
A voice echoed through the speakers:
“Benson’s legacy ends tonight.”
Screams. Panic. Smoke filled the hall.
Steve grabbed Maria’s hand.
“Don’t let go,” he whispered.
But in the smoke… their hands slipped.
“Don’t move,” a voice said over a loudspeaker.
Steve froze.
Maria, still inside, saw the red light through the window.
She screamed. “Steve, get down!”
He ducked.
The bullet shattered glass.
Chaos erupted again. Jayden and Harold fled. Maria ran toward the exit.
Steve met her halfway, grabbing her hand.
“I told you—never let go,” he whispered.
But behind them, the warehouse began to burn.
Someone had lit it.
Probably Harold.
They escaped just in time, flames chasing them out into the night.
- Writer
