Chapter 4 - The Confession in GlassJulian’s face turned a bruised, ugly shade of purple as Adrian’s grip tightened. He looked frantically around the room, realizing too late that Gabriel’s men had disabled the smart-home intercoms and locked down the building’s network. There was no escape, and no one was coming to save him.
"I don't—I don't know what you're talking about!" Julian choked out, his eyes wide with sheer panic.
Adrian didn't waste words. He pulled a heavy silver signet ring from his pinky finger—the crest of the Vale organization—and smashed it directly against the glass pane inches from Julian’s ear, creating a spiderweb crack that vibrated through the floorboards.
Gabriel stepped forward, holding a rugged military-grade tablet displaying a secure server login screen. He didn't speak; he simply held a heavy hunting knife over Julian’s manicured fingers, resting the flat of the blade against the skin.
Julian broke. The elite, untouchable Wall Street financier melted into a shivering coward in a matter of seconds.
"Okay! Okay! Stop!" Julian shrieked, his voice cracking. "It’s on the server! The master file is on the server in the basement vault of our Midtown headquarters!"
Adrian’s hands moved with cold fury.
Why?
"It was business!" Julian wept, pressing his palms flat against the cold glass. "Your empire was too massive, Adrian! If you could hear—if you knew what was happening behind your back—you would have cut us out years ago! Celeste suggested it. Dr. Crane engineered it. We needed your shipping lanes to move product without DEA interference, and the only way to control a beast like you was to make you deaf to your own kingdom!"
Mara stepped closer, her expression ice-cold as she signed down at him.
And Thomas? Did business require murdering a twenty-four-year-old kid in his own restaurant?
Julian squeezed his eyes shut. "That wasn't supposed to happen! The explosive charge was supposed to disable his freight shipments, not take down the building! It was a message that went wrong!"
Adrian stared down at the man who had helped destroy his family. The silence around him felt heavier than ever, but for the first time in three years, it wasn't an empty void. It was a canvas waiting for justice.
May you like
Adrian signed to Gabriel.
"Package him. Bring him to the Oyster Bay estate. We have a wedding rehearsal to prepare for."
