Chapter 10 - A King Goes to War
Cassandra disappeared from the hospital parking garage.
Her phone was found beneath a car.
Vadim blamed himself.
Elara refused to let him.
“You can't protect everyone every second.”
“I can try.”
“And destroy yourself when you fail?”
He looked at her.
She understood suddenly that control was not merely Vadim's weapon.
It was his fear.
He had lost his father.
People under his protection had died.
Now he treated every danger as something he should have predicted.
Elara took his hand.
“We get her back.”
We.
Vadim looked at their joined hands.
Then nodded.
Viktor wanted North Star.
Not money.
The company controlled shipping infrastructure he needed.
He also wanted the ledger destroyed.
Elara devised the solution.
Vadim hated it.
Which was how she knew it might work.
She publicly announced an emergency North Star board meeting.
For the first time, Gerald's hidden daughter walked into the company's Chicago headquarters not as baggage.
As owner.
Directors who had ignored her existence stood when she entered.
Elara hated how satisfying that felt.
She presented evidence of forged signatures.
Gerald was suspended from all authority.
Accounts were frozen.
An independent forensic audit began.
Then Elara announced she intended to transfer controlling voting rights.
News reached Viktor within minutes.
He called.
“You've become brave.”
Elara's hand trembled.
Her voice did not.
“Give me my sister.”
“Give me North Star.”
“Come sign for it.”
Vadim watched from across the room.
Viktor laughed.
“You think your husband can protect you?”
Elara looked at Vadim.
“He doesn't need to.”
Silence.
“Midnight,” Viktor said.
He gave an address.
The trap was obvious.
They went anyway.
Cassandra was inside an old North Star warehouse.
Alive.
Viktor expected Elara to arrive frightened.
Instead she arrived with federal investigators already holding copies of the financial records.
Vadim had contacts.
Elara had evidence.
Together they had something Viktor had underestimated.
Time.
The confrontation was brutal but brief.
Viktor realized the transfer documents were fake.
He grabbed Elara.
Vadim raised his gun.
Everything stopped.
Viktor pressed a weapon against Elara.
“Drop it.”
Vadim did.
Immediately.
Elara saw the truth in his face.
North Star meant nothing.
Power meant nothing.
Winning meant nothing.
Not compared with her.
Viktor smiled.
“The great Vadim Sokolov.”
Elara looked down.
Viktor's grip left one hand free.
A fire alarm hung inches away.
She pulled it.
Sirens exploded.
Sprinklers activated.
Cassandra kicked Viktor from behind.
Elara twisted away.
Vadim moved.
Seconds later Viktor was on the ground.
Police stormed the building.
Cassandra ran into Elara's arms.
It should have ended there.
It didn't.
One officer approached Vadim.
“We found something in Viktor's car.”
A file.
Inside were photographs.
Elara.
Dozens.
Taken over years.
School.
College.
Restaurants.
Her bedroom window.
She felt sick.
Then Vadim reached the last photograph.
It showed him.
Standing outside Elara's college graduation six years earlier.
Elara stared at him.
“You were there?”
Vadim's face went blank.
She turned the photograph over.
May you like
One sentence was written on the back.
VADIM CHOSE HER LONG BEFORE THE MARRIAGE.
