Chapter 7 - Dawn of the Board
The explosion ripped the reinforced door off its tracks, creating a violent vacuum that sucked the surrounding seawater out into the adjoining corridor.
Julian coughed violently, spitting out saltwater, his ears ringing with high-pitched agony. He looked down; Emma was conscious, gasping against his chest, her face pale but alive.
""Leo!"" she sputtered.
""He's above deck. The shaft stayed intact,"" Julian groaned, helping her stumble through the smoking, twisted wreckage of the doorway.
They fought their way up the flooded stairwells, eliminating two surprised deckhands before bursting out onto the rain-swept deck of The Valkyrie. Leo was huddled beneath a lifeboat tarp, shivering but unharmed. Emma scooped him into her arms, covering him with her jacket.
Julian checked his watch. It was 05:45 AM.
""The Vance Tower board meeting begins at 06:30,"" Julian said, his face covered in soot and blood, eyes blazing like molten iron. ""Victoria thinks she won. She’s already walking into the boardroom to claim the throne.""
""Let's make sure she gets what she deserves,"" Emma replied coldly.
Forty minutes later, a rain-streaked black helicopter bearing the Vance corporate crest descended aggressively onto the helipad of the 60-story Vance Tower in downtown Manhattan.
Inside the executive boardroom on the top floor, twenty board members sat in stunned silence as Victoria Vance, draped in an exquisite white cashmere coat, prepared to sign the conservatorship papers.
""Gentlemen,"" Victoria said, offering a practiced, sorrowful smile. ""Tragically, Julian was involved in a severe incident at the harbor this morning. As the legal guardian of the heir apparent, I will now assume full control—""
The heavy double mahogany doors of the boardroom were kicked off their hinges with a thunderous crash.
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Julian walked in, soaked, bruised, and carrying Leo on his shoulders. Right beside him, blood dripping from her shoulder bandage but holding her head impossibly high, stood Emma.
""Put the pen down, Victoria,"" Julian spoke, his voice carrying the authority of an emperor back from the dead. ""You're trespassing.""
