Chapter 13 - The Last Moretti Enemy
Serafina went.
Not because Marcus ordered her to.
Because she believed she understood where he was.
The coordinates led to Salvatore's grave.
Marcus stood alone.
No weapon.
No guards.
“You came.”
“You knew I would.”
He looked at the headstone.
“I spent my whole life wanting his name.”
“And now?”
“I don't know what I want.”
Serafina stood beside him.
“You escaped.”
“I walked out.”
She frowned.
“Nikolai let you?”
“No.”
Marcus handed her a keycard.
“Someone opened the door.”
Serafina's instincts sharpened.
“Who?”
“I thought it was you.”
“No.”
A car approached.
Nikolai stepped out.
Then Elena.
Then Dorian, against medical advice.
Marcus laughed.
“So much for alone.”
Dorian looked at him.
“You shot me.”
“You slept with your wife's enemy.”
“Fair.”
Serafina almost smiled despite herself.
Then Nikolai's phone rang.
He listened.
His face hardened.
“Rosa is missing.”
Marcus turned.
“What?”
A black vehicle appeared at the cemetery gates.
A woman stepped out.
Rosa.
Behind her came three armed men.
Serafina stared.
“Rosa?”
The elderly woman looked devastated.
“I'm sorry.”
Nikolai raised his weapon.
Rosa shook her head.
“You still don't understand.”
She had protected Serafina.
But she had also protected Salvatore's secrets.
For twenty-two years, Rosa had maintained Protocol Seventeen.
She had manipulated events to force all of Salvatore's heirs into one place.
“Why?”
“Because the empire couldn't survive divided.”
Serafina understood with horror.
“You wanted me to take control.”
“Yes.”
“The threats?”
“Some were Voss. Some were Julian.”
“And some were you.”
Rosa cried.
“Yes.”
The gala invitation.
The photograph.
The hidden documents.
Rosa had kept pushing.
She believed fear would make Serafina become her father.
Instead, Serafina had dismantled his hidden fortune.
“You gave away Account Seventeen,” Rosa whispered.
“Yes.”
“You destroyed what he built.”
“No.”
Serafina stepped closer.
“I ended what was destroying us.”
Rosa raised a gun.
Dorian moved.
Serafina stopped him with one hand.
“Don't.”
She looked at Rosa.
“You raised me.”
“I loved you.”
“Then prove it.”
Rosa's hand shook.
“Put it down.”
For several seconds, nobody breathed.
Then Rosa lowered the weapon.
The armed men behind her did the same.
Nikolai approached.
Rosa surrendered.
There would be consequences.
Serafina would not erase them.
But there would be no execution.
No revenge.
No body disappearing beneath concrete.
The cycle stopped there.
As police vehicles arrived, Marcus stood beside Serafina.
“What happens to me?”
“You answer for what you did.”
He nodded.
“And after?”
“If there is an after, you decide who you become.”
Marcus looked at his sister.
For the first time, he seemed peaceful.
Dorian watched from several feet away.
Serafina approached him.
“You should be in a hospital.”
“I've received that feedback.”
“You could have reopened the wound.”
“I did.”
She stared at him.
“You're bleeding?”
“A little.”
“Dorian.”
He smiled.
She hated that she almost smiled too.
Then his expression became serious.
“I signed the papers.”
He handed her the divorce documents.
His signature was at the bottom.
Serafina stared at them.
The thing she had wanted was now complete.
She should have felt free.
Instead, she felt something more complicated.
Dorian stepped back.
“No pressure. No request. They're yours.”
He walked away.
Serafina looked down at the papers.
Then her phone vibrated.
A message from Julian's attorney.
One final document had been discovered among Salvatore's records.
It concerned Dorian.
Serafina opened the attachment.
Her breath caught.
At the bottom was her father's signature.
May you like
And one sentence that changed everything.
DORIAN VALE WAS CHOSEN BEFORE SERAFINA EVER MET HIM.
