Chapter 8 - THE COLLAPSE OF THE EMPIREWith trembling, claw-like fingers, Serena reached out and snatched the fountain pen from the desk. Her breath came in shallow, ragged gasps as she stared down at the damning words printed across the heavy parchment.
"You’re destroying everything we built," she choked out, a solitary tear cutting a clean path through her heavy foundation.
"You destroyed it the moment you decided to poison my daughter," Victor replied without a shred of pity.
With a fierce, angry stroke, Serena slashed her signature across the bottom of the page—Serena Montigue-Blackwood—the ink bleeding slightly into the expensive paper like spreading blood. She dropped the pen as if it were burning hot, stumbling backward until she hit the bookshelves.
A second later, heavy boots echoed down the hallway, and the study door was kicked wide open.
Captain Miller of the Federal Task Force stepped into the room, flanked by four heavily armed federal agents in tactical gear. He took one look at the signed confession on the desk, then at Victor, and finally at Serena, who was now weeping hysterically against the mahogany bookshelf.
"Mr. Blackwood," Captain Miller nodded grimly. "We received your data packet. The perimeter is secure, and all unauthorized personnel have been neutralized or detained."
"Take her away, Captain," Victor said quietly, turning his back to look out into the rainy night. "She’s confessed to everything."
As Serena was hauled away in heavy steel cuffs—her desperate screams echoing down the grand hallway of the Blackwood estate—the heavy silence of the mansion returned, heavier and more suffocating than ever before.
Marco stepped into the study a moment later, standing quietly by the doorway.
May you like
"The medical team cleared little Chloe, boss," Marco reported softly. "Dr. Moreno says the antidote is working. She’s sleeping peacefully now."
Victor closed his eyes, drawing a long, shuddering breath for the first time in ten hours. "Thank you, Marco. For everything."
