Chapter 15 - The pawn on the board
"You remember Elena, don't you, Grace?" Salvatore chuckled, gripping Elena by her hair and pulling her head back. "After Marcus ruined her family’s business and threw her out onto the street, she came crawling to me in Naples. She offered me the location of Julianna’s personal archives in exchange for vengeance against you."
Elena wept, looking toward Grace with desperate, hollow eyes. "Grace... please... forgive me! I didn't know he was going to kill anyone! He promised he only wanted the legal documents! Please don't let him kill me!"
The sight of the woman who had once treated Grace like dirt now groveling for mercy was pathetic, yet Grace felt neither pleasure nor triumph. She looked at Salvatore with cold disgust. "You used a desperate woman to track down my childhood records. But Elena knows nothing about the Palermo vault."
"She knows enough," Salvatore replied, shoving Elena roughly onto the wet gravel. "She told me Julianna left a secret ledger inside the estate. A ledger containing the names of every corrupt official, every offshore account, and the cryptographic key to the Moretti vault. Hand over the ledger and submit to the blood ritual in Sicily, Grace, or I will ensure this entire coastline burns."
Marcus raised his right hand slightly—the signal for his snipers to fire. But before the trigger could be pulled, the sound of glass shattering echoed from the second-floor nursery.
A scream pierced the night—Noah’s voice calling out for Grace.
Marcus’s eyes widened in sudden horror as he spun toward the balcony. Salvatore’s men had not merely arrived by car; a second team of covert infiltrators had scaled the seaside cliff during the distraction, penetrating the armored wing.
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"Did you really think I would face the great Marcus Sterling without leverage?" Salvatore laughed darkly, backing toward his vehicle. "Give me the vault code, Grace, or the little boy joins his mother in the grave!"
Grace didn't wait for Marcus's command. With lightning speed born of pure maternal instinct, she sprinted back into the mansion, her heart pounding with a fierce, unstoppable rage.
