Chapter 9 - Ashes and Embers
Three days later, the Vane estate was quieter than it had been in decades. The blood had been washed from the marble floors, the shattered glass replaced, and the council restructured from the ground up.
Leandro sat behind the massive oak desk in the head office, the very same desk Maribel had tried to strip from Estelle. The room was bathed in the warm, golden light of the late afternoon sun.
Estelle walked in carrying a silver tray with two cups of black coffee. She set one down gently on the edge of the desk before taking a seat in the leather chair opposite him.
“The capos have all sworn renewed loyalty,” Estelle said softly, watching her son. “Julian Cross is awaiting trial in a federal black site, and Maribel has completely vanished off the grid. International waters, likely.”
Leandro stared into his coffee cup, watching the dark liquid ripple. “She’s out there waiting for my next mistake.”
“She’s your mother,” Estelle replied with a faint, knowing smile. “She will always be waiting. But you aren't the boy she tried to break on that banquet chair anymore, Leandro.”
Daphne entered the office moments later, holding a secure encrypted tablet. Her expression was serious, her eyes sharp.
“I just received an encrypted ping from an anonymous offshore relay,” Daphne said, placing the tablet on the desk. “It’s a single file.”
Leandro tapped the screen. The file opened to reveal a digital photograph taken from a distance—showing Maribel sitting on the deck of a luxury yacht somewhere in the Mediterranean, raising a glass of champagne toward the camera lens. Attached to the photo was a single text string of coordinates.
Estelle leaned over to read it, her eyebrows rising in surprise. “Coordinates to an abandoned Moretti weapons cache in South America. Enough firepower to start a small war.”
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Leandro looked up at Daphne and Estelle, a slow, dangerous smile finally breaking across his face.
“She isn't hiding,” Leandro said, standing up from his desk and buttoning his suit jacket. “She’s sending us an invitation.”
