Chapter 9 - Bloodlines and Debts
Diana stepped onto the wooden deck of the interceptor, the boat shifting gently beneath her weight. She did not return her father's greeting. She walked directly into the warm cabin, placing Lily gently onto the leather bench beneath an emergency blanket. Lily’s eyelids were heavy, exhaustion finally overpowering fear as the warmth of the cabin enveloped her. Within moments, the little girl’s breathing deepened into sleep.
Diana turned back to the doorway, blocking the view of her child from the old man who now stood in the entrance, supported by his cane.
“You brought Vance’s men down on us,” Diana said, her voice dropping into a dangerous, low octave. “Julian didn't find us by accident. You leaked our location to force my hand.”
Arthur Sterling leaned both hands on the silver head of his cane, his weathered face showing neither guilt nor remorse. “Julian Vance was a rabid dog, Diana. Rabid dogs must be put down before they bite someone important. You spent five years pretending to be a suburban socialite while the wolves circled your daughter. You forgot what you were.”
“I became a mother,” Diana retorted sharply, stepping forward until she was inches from his face. “I left your syndicate so she wouldn't have to grow up smelling cordite and counting bodies!”
“And look how well that protected her,” Arthur snapped back, his eyes flashing with sudden, terrifying vitality. “A grown man hit her in broad daylight! Because he knew you were hiding! Because he thought the Sterling line had gone soft!”
The old man took a deep, trembling breath, turning toward the helm where an unmarked navigator was already plotting their course into international waters. “Alexander Vance has called in every marker he owns. He has the police commissioner, the port authority, and three mercenary syndicates searching every inch of this coastline. By dawn, your face will be broadcast across the continent as a fugitive kidnapper.”
“Let them search,” Diana said coldly. “Julian is dead. Alexander is broken. He has nothing left to strike with.”
Arthur laughed—a dry, hacking sound that ended in a grim scowl. “Julian was his idiot son, Diana. Alexander has ten more like him, and half the city council in his pocket. But more importantly... he has the keys to your husband’s estate. Everything Thomas left for Lily—the trust, the land, the offshore assets—Alexander seized them thirty minutes ago through emergency probate.”
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Diana felt a sudden, icy chill through her veins. Thomas’s legacy was the only thing ensuring Lily’s legal freedom from the Sterling syndicate. If Vance owned the estate, he owned the legal guardianship of her daughter.
“He filed an emergency custody petition,” Arthur said, handing her a damp tablet screen. “Signed by a corrupt superior court judge at midnight. By law, Lily belongs to the Vance trust now. Unless you destroy the man who holds the paper.”
