Chapter 18 - The Shadow Behind the Crown
Dominic’s blood ran cold. He sprinted out of the cathedral onto the rain-slicked clifftop road.
The heavy armored transport vehicle was flipped on its side, black smoke billowing into the stormy air. Marcus and three operators lay unconscious on the mud, alive but heavy-sedated by fast-acting dart rounds.
Standing in the middle of the road, holding a smoking dart rifle in one hand and Marco’s bloodied cane in the other, was a figure in a pristine grey suit.
The headlights of an idling helicopter on the nearby ridge illuminated his face.
Dominic stopped dead in his tracks, his eyes widening in pure disbelief.
“Dr. Vance?”
The family’s trusted physician—the man who had treated Clara’s poison, the man who had delivered Lily, the man who had stood by Dominic for fifteen years—turned around with an elegant, terrible smile.
“Hello, Dominic,” Dr. Vance said, his voice entirely devoid of its usual warm, gentle bedside manner.
“You… you pulled Marco out?” Dominic stammered, raising his weapon. “Why? You helped us save Clara!”
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Vance chuckled softly, adjusting his round wire glasses. “I saved Clara because her death would have ended the war too quickly. I needed Marco to draw out the secret bloodline ledger. And I needed you to break the Valenti family so there would be no one left to contest the throne.”
Dominic realized the horror in an instant. “You were never working for my father or Marco. You were working for yourself.”
