Chapter 7 - The Reckoning
The night sky over Manhattan was dark, heavy with rain clouds, as a convoy of five black SUVs pulled up outside the Moretti Tower on Wall Street.
I remained at the New Jersey estate under Viktor's heaviest guard, holding Rose in the master nursery, watching the news channels with breathless anxiety. The media was already reporting a "major police action and financial raid" underway at the headquarters of Moretti Enterprises.
On my private phone, a live encrypted audio feed connected me directly to Nathan’s earpiece.
"We are in the lobby," Nathan’s voice came through the speaker, calm and steady over the sound of shouting and quick footsteps. "Moretti’s private security team has surrendered. They haven't been paid. They opened the private elevator for us."
I held Rose tight against my chest, my knuckles white. "Nathan... please be careful."
"Always," he murmured back.
A minute of intense silence followed, punctuated only by the hum of the elevator mechanism over the audio feed.
Then, the ping of an elevator door opening.
"Cross!" Mario Moretti’s voice echoed through the speaker, thin, frantic, and desperate. "Stay back! I have a detonator! I'll blow this whole floor!"
"You don't have a detonator, Mario," Nathan’s cold voice replied smoothly. "Your chief of security sold it to me twenty minutes ago for fifty thousand dollars in cash."
A loud metallic crash echoed through the feed, followed by a wet, heavy thud and a gurgling scream.
"That was for Thomas Brooks," Nathan’s voice rang out through the speaker, echoing with absolute, terrifying finality. "And this is for my daughter."
A single gunshot blasted through the speaker.
Then, complete, absolute silence.
I sat frozen on the velvet chair in New Jersey, my breath caught in my throat, tears spilling silently down my cheeks. It was over. The monsters who had destroyed my life, the men who had murdered my sweet Thomas and my beautiful twin boys, were gone.
"Elena," Nathan’s voice came through the earpiece, no longer cold, but rough and heavy with emotion.
"I'm here, Nathan," I wept softly into the phone.
"It is done," he whispered. "The war is over. Your family has their justice."
May you like
"Thank you, Nathan," I sobbed, pressing my hand over my mouth. "Thank you."
"I am coming home to you," he said. "To you and Rose."
