Chapter 12 - The Price of Betrayal
Serafina returned to Dorian's hospital room.
“Where is Julian?”
Dorian looked genuinely confused.
“What?”
She handed him the note.
He read it.
Then reached for his phone.
“There is one thing I haven't told you.”
Serafina's expression hardened.
Dorian opened an encrypted folder.
“After Vivian entered my life, I suspected she was reporting to someone.”
“You knew?”
“Not at first.”
“And you continued sleeping with her?”
Shame crossed his face.
“Yes.”
Serafina turned away.
“I don't need details.”
“I hired an investigator.”
He showed her photographs.
Vivian meeting Julian.
Julian meeting Voss.
Marcus entering Julian's office.
“You had this?”
“I got it yesterday.”
“Why didn't you tell me?”
“I was going to confront Vivian at the gala.”
Serafina laughed once.
“You asked me for a divorce before confronting the woman you suspected of spying on you?”
“Yes.”
“That might be the stupidest sentence you've ever said.”
“I don't disagree.”
Dorian showed her the final photograph.
Julian entering a private bank.
He carried Salvatore's second ledger.
Except Serafina had the ledger.
“A copy,” she said.
Dorian nodded.
“What is he after?”
“Account 17.”
Serafina froze.
Protocol Seventeen had a financial component.
A reserve Salvatore created solely for his heirs.
Three hundred million dollars.
Julian needed Serafina's biometric authorization.
Vivian could not provide it.
So why take Vivian?
Dorian's phone rang.
Julian.
Serafina answered.
“Where is she?”
“Central Station. Locker 117.”
The line ended.
Inside the locker they found no Vivian.
Only a phone.
A video began.
Vivian stood beside Julian voluntarily.
“I am sorry,” she said.
Dorian watched.
Vivian explained that her brother had died six months earlier.
Voss had lied to keep controlling her.
After discovering the truth, she had decided to help Julian destroy Voss and the Moretti financial system.
“I didn't leave because Julian forced me.”
Serafina listened.
“I left because the people who built these empires destroyed every family around them and called it business.”
Vivian looked into the camera.
“But Julian has gone too far.”
She turned toward someone offscreen.
The video shook.
Julian shouted.
Vivian screamed.
The feed ended.
A location flashed.
Meridian Bank.
Serafina understood.
Account 17.
They arrived to find the private banking floor evacuated.
Julian stood inside the vault corridor.
Vivian was behind him.
He held an explosive trigger.
“Open the account.”
Serafina stepped forward.
“No.”
“I'll destroy the records.”
“Do it.”
Julian stared.
“You don't understand.”
“I do.”
Serafina held up a document.
“I dissolved Account Seventeen an hour ago.”
His face collapsed.
“The money is gone?”
“No.”
“Where?”
“Victim compensation trusts.”
Nikolai stared at her.
She hadn't told him.
Neither had she needed permission.
“Families harmed by my father's organization will receive it.”
Julian's hand trembled.
“You can't erase what he did.”
“I didn't.”
She looked at him.
“I'm refusing to repeat it.”
Vivian stepped away from Julian.
He turned.
That moment was enough.
Security tackled him.
The trigger fell.
Dorian kicked it away.
Julian was arrested.
Vivian sank against the wall.
For the first time, the war seemed over.
Then Elena's phone rang.
She answered.
Her face changed.
“What happened?”
She looked at Serafina.
“Marcus escaped custody.”
A second message appeared.
This one contained coordinates.
May you like
And beneath them:
COME ALONE, SISTER.
