Chapter 5 - The Empire Trembles
The silence that followed Vance’s confession wasn't quiet. It was deafening.
It was the sound of twenty years of memories, vengeance, murders, alliances, and absolute authority shattering into a million jagged pieces. Every enemy Sebastian had hunted down, every rival family he had wiped off the map, every ruthless decision he had made believing he was a crippled king exacting vengeance for a ruined life—all of it built on a lie.
Sebastian didn't scream. He didn't rage.
He sat completely motionless in his titanium chair. His knuckles, gripping the armrests, turned white.
“Who?” Sebastian whispered.
His voice was so quiet, so devoid of human emotion, that even Gabriel stepped back a half-step.
“I—I don't know all of them,” Vance stammered, sobbing openly now, sliding down the side of the mahogany desk until he was sitting on the Persian rug. “It was a committee. Your father’s old consigliere, Arthur Sterling. Senator Thomas Vance—my uncle. And... and your current head of internal security, Victor Cross.”
Gabriel’s head snapped up. “Cross?”
“Yes!” Vance cried out, clutching his head. “Cross managed the medical facility funds! He’s the one who authorized the biannual firmware updates for your neural block!”
Sebastian slowly turned his head toward Gabriel.
“Gabriel,” Sebastian said, his voice dropping into a register that sent a shiver straight down my spine. “Where is Victor Cross right now?”
“He’s at the downtown warehouse,” Gabriel said, his face dark with absolute fury—the fury of a loyal soldier who had just discovered his entire life was a treasonous joke. “Overseeing the shipment arrival.”
Sebastian looked down at his legs. Then, slowly, with a deliberate, agonizing effort of sheer willpower, he grabbed his own right knee.
“Claire,” Sebastian said, his eyes locking onto mine, burning with a terrifying, reborn fire. “Get behind me.”
I didn't hesitate. I stepped directly behind his wheelchair, placing my hands on the push handles.
“What are you going to do?” I asked.
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Sebastian looked up at the ceiling, a dark, chilling smile spreading across his face—the smile of a monster who had just realized he was wearing human skin, and was about to take it off.
“For twenty years, they thought they put me in a cage,” Sebastian whispered. “Let’s go show them what happens when the animal figures out how to open the door.”
