Chapter 10
Gun clicks echoed instantly throughout the library as Victor’s bodyguards drew their weapons.
"Claire, get behind me!" Victor barked, reaching blindly through the dark and pulling her against his back with one powerful arm.
Red emergency lights hummed to life along the baseboards, casting eerie shadows across the tall walls.
"Mateo!" Victor shouted. "Report!"
"Main power grid just got cut from the exterior breaker!" Mateo called out, his radio crackling with static. "Security team three, report! Team three, do you copy?"
The radio replied only with sharp, heavy static, followed by the faint sound of footsteps on the grand staircase outside the library.
Claire's heart hammered against Victor's back. "Eli! Victor, Eli is upstairs!"
"Nobody leaves this room until I say so!" Victor commanded, unholstering a custom black automatic from his waistband.
The heavy oak doors of the library slowly creaked open.
A tall figure stepped through the frame, illuminated by the dim red glow of the backup lights. The man was dressed in a tailored gray overcoat, silver hair swept back, his posture impeccably upright.
It wasn't an assassin.
It was Arthur Bellandi—Victor's seventy-year-old uncle, the respected consigliere of the Bellandi family.
"Uncle Arthur?" Victor lowered his weapon slightly, his brow furrowed in disbelief. "What the hell is going on with the power?"
Arthur didn't flinch. In his left hand, he held a sleek remote control for the mansion's main breaker. In his right hand, resting on his pinky finger, was the genuine, heavy gold signet ring with the cracked onyx stone.
Claire let out a stifled scream. "That's him! Victor, that's the man from the hospital!"
Victor stared at his uncle, his blood running cold. "Arthur... it was you?"
"Seven years ago, Victor, you were soft," Arthur said, his voice smooth, cultured, and devoid of remorse. "You were distracted by a maid while our empire was bleeding from the docks. I did what was necessary to protect this family."
"You threatened my son!" Victor roared, raising his weapon straight at his uncle's chest.
"I didn't kill him, did I?" Arthur replied with chilling calm. "I could have ended them both in that clinic bed. Instead, I gave her fifty grand of Moretti’s money and sent her away. But tonight... tonight you were about to hand the Bellandi bloodline to the Moretti vultures by marrying that spoiled viper."
Arthur pointed a steady finger toward Celeste.
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"I brought Claire and the boy back here tonight," Arthur said softly. "To stop this wedding. And to show you that the true heir to this family is already born."
***
