Chapter 6 - The Trojan Horse
Victor Vance laughed, enjoying the agonizing spectacle. "She doesn't even know, does she, Daniel? Tell her the truth before we paint the floor with her boss's brains."
Simone gasped for air, wiping blood from her lip, staring up at Daniel in utter horrific confusion. "What truth?"
Daniel leaned down, whispering in Simone’s ear with terrifying intimacy. "Your father didn't die of a heart attack eight years ago, Simone. He was murdered. By order of the Romano family. Old man Romano—Adrienne’s father—had him executed the moment your dad finished building the encrypted financial vault."
Simone’s heart stopped. She slowly turned her eyes toward Adrienne.
Adrienne stood frozen. The shadow of his father’s dark past slammed into him like a freight train. He remembered the night eight years ago—the sudden quiet execution of an old associate, the secret files buried deep in his father’s safe. He had been twenty-four then, uninvolved in senior syndicate leadership, but he had known his father was a monster.
"Is... is it true?" Simone whispered, her voice breaking into a million jagged pieces. "Adrienne... did your family kill my father?"
Adrienne couldn't lie to her. Not now. Not while her life hung in the balance.
"My father ordered it," Adrienne admitted, his voice hoarse with deep, agonizing guilt. "I didn't know until years later, Simone. I swear to God... I didn't know who you were when you walked into my office five years ago."
"He knew!" Daniel screamed, pointing his gun at Adrienne. "He kept you close to monitor you! He used you as a slave to manage his life while keeping you blind to the fact that you were serving the man who butchered your family!"
Simone felt as if the entire world was dissolving around her. Five years of secret admiration, five years of unspoken devotion to a man whose bloodline had destroyed her life.
"Enough melodrama," Vance interrupted, drawing his own weapon. "Simone, give us the master decryption phrase to your father's vault, and I’ll execute Romano right here. You can take your freedom and half the wealth."
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Simone looked at Vance, then at Daniel, and finally at Adrienne.
Adrienne lowered his weapon slightly, accepting his fate. "Give them the phrase, Simone," he said quietly, his eyes soft, full of a strange, peaceful surrender. "Save yourself. I deserve whatever happens to me."
