Chapter 5 - The Divorce Clause
They had fifty-seven seconds.
Nikolai fired at the lock.
Nothing.
Dorian searched the walls.
“Ventilation!”
Serafina spotted a maintenance panel.
“Behind that.”
Dorian ripped it open.
A narrow service shaft appeared.
“Go.”
Serafina climbed first.
Nikolai followed.
Dorian shoved the last guard inside.
The timer reached twelve.
“Dorian!”
He jumped.
The explosion threw him forward.
Serafina caught his wrist.
For one suspended second, Dorian hung above fire.
She could have released him.
He saw that knowledge in her eyes.
She tightened her grip.
Nikolai helped pull him up.
Outside, Dorian coughed against the pavement.
“Why?”
Serafina looked at him.
“Because I'm not you.”
The words hurt.
Back at the townhouse, Julian Cross arrived with the trust documents.
Serafina read until dawn.
One clause changed everything.
Marriage to a non-Moretti beneficiary triggered temporary spousal protections over specific corporate assets.
Divorce terminated them.
Dorian stared at the page.
“If our divorce is finalized before midnight tomorrow—”
“You lose the protections,” Julian said.
“And Serafina gains unrestricted control of the shares.”
“Yes.”
Dorian laughed without humor.
“So someone wanted me to divorce her now.”
Serafina thought of Vivian.
Voss.
The invitation.
The number seventeen.
“This wasn't about humiliating me.”
Nikolai nodded.
“It was timing.”
Dorian stood.
“Vivian pushed me.”
Serafina looked at him.
“What?”
“She never directly told me to divorce you. But every conversation ended there. She said I looked weak because my wife didn't participate in the business. She said people laughed at me.”
“And you believed her.”
He looked ashamed.
“Yes.”
Serafina returned to the papers.
Dorian touched the table.
“I was still the one who did it.”
She looked up.
No excuses.
For the first time that night, he had offered none.
“I know.”
At noon, Julian found another clause.
If Serafina died before accepting control, the trust passed to the designated secondary heir.
The name was sealed.
Only Salvatore's original ledger could reveal it.
Rosa's key.
The cellar.
They drove north to the ruined Moretti estate.
Only stone foundations remained.
Rosa led them to an iron door buried beneath ivy.
Serafina inserted the key.
It opened.
Below, a staircase descended into darkness.
They found shelves of records.
At the center stood Salvatore's desk.
Serafina touched it.
For the first time since Dorian had asked for the divorce, her composure cracked.
“My father sat here.”
Dorian remained behind her.
He wanted to comfort her.
He didn't.
Rosa found the ledger.
Serafina opened it.
Pages listed names, payments, alliances.
Then they reached the final section.
SECONDARY SUCCESSION.
One page had been glued shut.
Serafina carefully separated it.
A photograph fell out.
Two girls.
One was Serafina at six.
The other looked almost identical.
On the back, Salvatore had written:
MY DAUGHTERS.
Serafina stared at Rosa.
“Daughters?”
Rosa went pale.
Nikolai whispered, “No.”
Serafina turned.
“You knew?”
“No.”
Rosa began crying.
“Your mother made me swear.”
“Swear what?”
Rosa looked toward the photograph.
“That you would never know about your sister.”
A floorboard creaked upstairs.
Everyone turned.
Someone had followed them.
Then a woman's voice called from the darkness.
May you like
“Serafina?”
And the second girl from the photograph stepped into the light.
