Chapter 46 - A Mother’s Defiance
A collective gasp echoed across the grand ballroom. Several of Lucian’s armed bodyguards immediately shifted their hands beneath their silk jackets, reaching for suppressed pistols.
Julian stepped forward half an inch, his coat unbuttoned, his hand resting within millimeters of his high-caliber weapon. At the same time, six laser dots appeared on the chest of Lucian’s chief security officer—aimed directly from the exterior balcony by my own elite sniper team.
Nobody moved. The tension was thick enough to suffocate a man.
Lucian’s smile vanished, replaced by a mask of aristocratic venom. "You are playing a dangerous game in an arena you do not understand, Clara. These people around you control governments. They dictate wars. Arthur Sterling was an ant compared to the power assembled in this room."
"And yet," I said, stepping closer until I was breathing his own air, "Arthur Sterling ended up stripped of his fortune, his empire burned to ash, and his body dumped in a cold grave. Brooke ended up in a maximum-security cage with her vanity stripped away. You think your bloodline makes you immortal, Lucian? You bleed just like they do."
I tapped the discreet remote control in my evening clutch.
Instantly, the grand projection screens across the ballroom—originally meant to display the Castiglione family tree and the announcement of the heir—flickered violently.
The security footage of Arthur Sterling groveling before Lucian flooded the monitors. Documents outlining the illegal embryonic theft, the money laundering through the Mediterranean Maritime Bank, and Lucian’s private orders to execute me and seize Leo splashed across forty giant screens in 4K resolution.
High-profile foreign ministers backed away in horror. Journalists who had been invited for the succession announcement raised their concealed cameras, capturing every incriminating transaction in real time.
"You fool!" Lucian snarled, his composure finally shattering as his eyes flared with wild rage. "Do you think this will save you? My men have already breached your sanctuary in Singapore! Your boy is already being extracted as we speak!"
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My lips curled into a victorious smile.
"Did you really think I left Leo in the sanctuary, Lucian?" I whispered softly. "I knew you were tracking our coastal estate the moment your courier left that locket. Leo isn't in Singapore. He isn't anywhere your hounds can find him."
