A FATHER’S WRATH: THE BLOODLINE AND THE BROOCH

"You always were remarkably stubborn, Julian," Victor Thorne’s voice carried through an industrial megaphone, rich with aristocratic disdain.

Julian didn't look at Thorne. His eyes were locked on the little girl suspended sixty feet above the black water. Lily saw him through the cage bars, her small hands reaching out. "Daddy! Daddy, help me!"

The sound of her voice drove an agonizing spike through Julian’s chest, but his face remained an unreadable mask of stone. "Let the girl down, Thorne. You have the pier surrounded. You have the ship. You have me."

"I don't just want you, Julian. I want my bloodline back," Thorne said, tapping his cane against the steel railing. "My daughter Elena made a foolish choice with your weak-willed brother. But her daughter carries the genetics of an empire. Lily will be raised in my academies. She will not grow up to be a simpering socialite playing with flower dresses."

"She is a child," Julian spat. "Not an asset."

"Everything is an asset," Thorne countered coldly. "Here is the transaction: You walk up this ramp, submit to the retinal scan to unlock the Zurich sovereign vaults, and board the ship. Marcus stays behind to drown with the wreckage of your little empire. If you refuse, or if you fire a single shot, my man on the crane cuts the cable. The cage is weighted with three tons of scrap iron. She will reach the ocean floor in four seconds."

Julian raised both hands, palms facing outward, stepping forward toward the gantry stairs.

"Boss, don't do it," Marcus whispered through his concealed earpiece. "It's an execution."

"Keep your rifle aimed at the crane operator's winch," Julian whispered back, barely moving his lips. "When I give the word, do not hesitate."

Julian climbed the rusted metal steps, each clang of his boots echoing like a funeral march. As he reached the elevated platform, Thorne’s chief enforcer stepped forward with a portable optical scanning unit.

"Hold him," Thorne commanded.

Two mercenaries pinned Julian's arms behind his back. The enforcer shoved the cold glass lens of the retinal scanner directly against Julian’s right eye.