Chapter 14: The Weight of Gold
Rising from his chair, the man walked slowly down the marble-tiled corridor toward the lower level of the mansion, stopping outside the heavy steel door of the walk-in vault. The mansion was quiet, bathed in the soft morning light filtering through the high windows.
He punched the digital override code into the security pad. With a heavy mechanical sigh, the thick steel door slowly swung open, letting a shaft of harsh light cut through the pitch-black interior.
The woman in red stumbled out blindly, gasping for air, her evening gown stained with dust and sweat, her hair disheveled. She collapsed onto the marble floor outside the vault, utterly broken, staring up at him with eyes empty of defiance. The towering stacks of cash behind her inside the vault now looked less like a fortune and more like a monument to human greed.
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“Wealth doesn't protect you,” the man said quietly, looking down at her with a mix of pity and absolute detachment. “It only exposes what you're truly willing to sell.”
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