Chapter 10 - Bloodline and Ash
Julian stood thirty paces away under the flickering sodium lights, his scarred cheek highlighted by the yellow glow. His eyes did not linger on Victoria; they locked onto Clara with a mixture of possessiveness and cold calculation.
"Come here, Clara," Julian said, extending an open hand toward the child. "Your mother spent twelve years poisoning your head against me. But I am your father. Everything Richard stole from us belongs to you—under my guardianship, of course."
Clara did not move. Her fingers curled into Victoria’s ruined sleeve, holding on with a strength that belied her small frame.
"You killed her," Clara said. Her voice did not shake; it was flat, cold, and heavy with a judgment that stunned the men surrounding them. "You were the one who sent the man to the clinic. You took her medicine away."
Julian’s face hardened, the veneer of paternal benevolence peeling away like cheap paint. "Your mother was weak, Clara. She thought poverty was nobler than power. She would have let you rot in a public ward while Richard used our family name to run for governor."
He shifted his gaze to Victoria. "Give her to me, Victoria. You walk out of here alive. You can even keep the townhouse in the city. Richard will announce that you had a nervous breakdown and retired to the countryside. You survive."
Victoria looked down at Clara. For the first time in twelve years, she saw no ghost of her husband’s cruelty, no memory of the scandal she had spent her life running from. She saw a girl who had survived in the dark while the adults around her traded lives like currency.
Slowly, Victoria reached into the locker, her fingers wrapping around the grip of the heavy service automatic.
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"You always underestimated Helena, Julian," Victoria said, stepping out from the locker alcove to put her entire body between Julian and Clara. "And you have catastrophically underestimated me."
Victoria didn't aim at Julian. She raised the weapon and fired three consecutive rounds into the overhead power junction box bolted to the main structural pillar.
