Chapter 9 - The Ledger of BloodDominic took a step back, the color draining entirely from his face.
"What... what did you say?" Dominic whispered, the words catching in his throat.
Grace reached into the deep pocket of her oversized cardigan and pulled out a worn, leather-bound notebook with yellowed pages and water-stained edges. She laid it gently on Julian’s desk, right beside the stack of manuscripts.
"Six years ago, I found this hidden inside a false bottom of a filing cabinet in the Chicago office," Grace said, her voice steady and clear. "Victor thought it was destroyed during the federal raid. But I kept it. I kept it because I knew that one day, I’d find someone strong enough—or desperate enough—to use it."
Julian reached out with trembling fingers, flipping open the cover.
On the yellowed pages were detailed bank transfers, shell company signatures, and a signed medical affidavit proving that their father’s fatal heart attack seven years ago had been chemically induced using a slow-acting synthetic toxin—administered by none other than Victor Vale’s personal physician.
Dominic fell forward, his hands slamming flat onto the desk as he stared down at the damning evidence. Every dark secret, every betrayal, every lie he had fought against for a decade was right there in black and white.
He looked up, his eyes wide and burning with unshed tears. He looked at Grace, then down at his brother.
Julian wasn't looking at the ledger.
He was looking at Grace, a slow, radiant smile breaking across his pale face—the first true, unburdened smile Dominic had ever seen on his twin in seven agonizing years.
Julian picked up his pen. He didn't write a story this time. He wrote a single sentence, pushed it across the desk toward Dominic, and looked up with eyes full of fierce, unbreakable life.
May you like
She’s not the housekeeper, Dominic.
She’s the co-author.
