Chapter 6 - Bloodline of Glass
Vincent stood frozen in the doorway, the blood from his slashed ribs slowly soaking into the dark fabric of his shirt. The adrenaline that had propelled him up the elevator shaft evaporated, replaced by a cold, leaden weight in the pit of his stomach.
""Clara,"" Vincent said softly, stepping inside and gently easing the cleaver out of Lena’s trembling fingers. ""Where did you get that?""
Clara looked down at the silver oval resting on her tiny lap. Her thumb rubbed across the tarnished metal surface, tracing the sharp features of Julian Vance's face.
""Mrs. Gable gave it to me yesterday,"" Clara whispered, her voice tiny and fragile. ""She told me to keep it inside my cast. She said my real daddy was coming to take me away from the bad man who killed my father.""
The air in the room seemed to freeze. Lena gasped, clapping a hand over her mouth in horror.
Vincent’s mind flashed back through five years of memories: the night his brother Michael had brought the infant home during the peak of the syndicate war; Michael’s desperate insistence that the child’s mother had died in childbirth; the strange, distant look in Michael’s eyes whenever Julian Vance came to visit the family villa.
It hadn't been a business feud that destroyed Michael and Julian’s alliance. It had been a theft. Michael hadn't just stolen Julian's empire; he had stolen his newborn child.
""Uncle Vincent?"" Clara’s eyes filled with tears, looking at the blood spreading across his side. ""Are you the bad man?""
Vincent slowly lowered himself onto his knees, ignoring the searing pain in his torso. He reached out with two fingers, gently touching her small chin, tilting her gaze up to meet his own. His eyes were steady, stripped of all violence, filled only with absolute devotion.
""Your father was Michael Morelli,"" Vincent said, each word deliberate and unshakable. ""He raised you. He held you when you cried. And when he died, I swore on his grave that nobody on this earth would ever harm you. That is the only truth that matters.""
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Before Clara could answer, Dominic burst into the room, his tactical vest scorched from shotgun buckshot.
""Boss,"" Dominic panted, his eyes widening as he saw the locket in Clara's hand. ""We secured the ground floor, but we have a major problem. Julian didn't come with this team. He’s stationed two miles away at the private airfield. And he just initiated a legal emergency custody order backed by federal marshals.""
