CHAPTER 6 — The Heir Who Refused the Throne
Three days later...
New York believed Dominic Rossi had been dead for almost a week.
His funeral was held inside the family cathedral.
Politicians attended.
Business leaders cried for the cameras.
Lorenzo stood beside the casket wearing perfect black.
Giving speeches about family.
About loyalty.
About loss.
Inside the coffin...
there was no body.
Only bags of sand.
Meanwhile...
Sarah, Dominic, Ben, Emily, and Sister Agnes watched everything from an abandoned warehouse through a hacked television broadcast.
Dominic never looked away.
Finally...
he turned off the screen.
"I won't take the empire back."
Everyone stared at him.
Ben frowned.
"What are you saying?"
Dominic looked at Sarah.
"My father spent thirty years building this organization."
"And thirty years trying to escape it."
"He documented every crime."
"He wanted it to end."
Sarah quietly asked,
"So what do we do?"
Dominic held up the memory card.
"We don't save the Rossi empire."
"We destroy it."
Ben slowly smiled for the first time.
"Now..."
"You finally sound like your father."
But before anyone could speak again...
Sarah's phone vibrated.
No caller ID.
Only a single video message.
She opened it.
The room instantly fell silent.
Emily screamed.
The screen showed Sister Agnes...
bound to a chair.
Bruised.
Bleeding.
Lorenzo stepped into view behind her.
He looked directly into the camera.
"I've been searching for Dominic."
"But I realized something."
"The maid..."
"is the one who makes him predictable."
He smiled.
"So instead of hunting the heir..."
"I'll hunt everyone she loves."
The video ended.
Then another message appeared.
A live location.
An abandoned shipyard.
Midnight.
Come alone.
Or Sister Agnes dies.
Dominic immediately reached for his pistol.
Sarah stopped him.
"No."
"If we keep running..."
"Everyone around us keeps paying the price."
She looked at the memory card in her hand.
Then at Lorenzo's location.
For the first time since the night of the blizzard...
the maid who had only wanted to save a life...
made a decision that would change the balance of power forever.
She whispered,
"This time..."
May you like
"We're not escaping."
"We're setting the trap."
