Chapter 12
David Vance looked entirely unaffected by the chaos he had unleashed, casually adjusting the cuffs of his charcoal suit while holding the small silver blade steady against Maya’s trembling throat. Little Maya was sobbing quietly, her yellow floral dress stained with cake frosting, her wide, sorrowful eyes locked onto her father with a silent plea for rescue. Elena knelt a few feet away, paralyzed by fear, her light blue dress pooling around her knees like a puddle of tears.
"Drop the weapon, Julian," David said smoothly, his voice carrying the calm, arrogant cadence of a man who believed he held all the winning cards. "I didn't spend six months orchestrating my own funeral just to be gunned down in my brother's nursery by a trigger-happy thug."
Julian stopped three paces away, his hands raised slightly to show he was unarmed, but his body was coiled like a steel spring ready to snap. The physical resemblance between them was undeniable, yet the gulf in their souls was as vast as an ocean. Julian’s tattoos seemed to pulse under the wall sconces as his chest rose and fell with heavy, controlled breaths.
"You let a monster into this house, David," Julian growled, his voice a low, vibrating threat that caused Maya to whimper softly. "You put my daughter in danger just to settle a grudge over a corporate ledger?"
David chuckled, a light, dismissive sound that grated on Julian's last remaining nerves. "A corporate ledger? Julian, you took everything from me during the restructuring. You buried me under non-disclosure agreements and cut me out of the family trust while you played king in this mausoleum. I didn't come back for money. I came back for what was mine."
"And what is that? The estate? The company?" Julian took a slow, deliberate step forward, narrowing the distance between them.
May you like
"No," David said, his smile fading into something dark and venomous as the blade drifted a fraction closer to Maya’s delicate skin. "I came back for the vault key. And for Lily. The daughter you tried to erase from history just to keep your pristine public image intact."
Before David could tighten his grip on the blade, a small shadow slipped silently through the nursery door behind him, holding a heavy brass candlestick aloft with both hands.
