Chapter 12 - The Senator’s Reckoning
"Get in the car, Victoria!" Richard yelled over the howling wind, his voice shrill with panic. "Julian’s men have compromised the entire district! The federal marshals are five minutes behind me!"
Victoria stood on the edge of the pier, the rain lashing her face, Clara pressed tight against her hip. She did not move toward the car. She stared at the man she had been married to for fifteen years—the man whose political ambitions had hollowed out her soul until there was nothing left but diamond necklaces and empty smiles.
"You sent Arthur to kill us, Richard," Victoria said, her voice cutting through the tempest.
Richard’s face drained of color under the car’s halogen lights. "It wasn't supposed to happen like this! Arthur was supposed to contain the situation before the press caught wind of it! Julian had the documents—he was going to destroy the campaign, Victoria! Everything we built! Everything we sacrificed!"
"You sacrificed my child!" Victoria screamed, the fury of twelve years finally erupting from her throat like molten iron. "You told me she was stillborn! You told me Helena took the money and fled to South America!"
Richard took a step forward, his hands raised in a pathetic gesture of pleading. "I did it for us! If the party found out about Julian’s child... if they thought the estate was contested—"
A single gunshot cracked from the darkness of the transit shed.
Richard’s chest jerked. A dark, blooming stain spread across the pristine white front of his pleated tuxedo shirt. He looked down in disbelief, his mouth opening in a silent gasp, before collapsing forward onto the wet gravel.
May you like
Julian emerged from the shadows of the doorway, holding a smoking pistol. His men fanned out behind him, cutting off every escape route along the dock.
"A poetic end to a rising political star," Julian sneered, stepping over his dying brother’s body without a second glance. "Now, Victoria. The ledger. And my daughter."
