Chapter 13
Lily moved with an eerie, silent grace that caught everyone in the room completely off guard. While David was entirely focused on Julian’s approach, the seven-year-old girl crept across the Persian rug like a ghost in her identical yellow floral dress. She raised the heavy brass candlestick high above her head, her young face set with a cold, fierce determination that mirrored her father's most dangerous traits.
"Let her go, Uncle David," Lily whispered fiercely.
David started, his attention snapping backward just a fraction of a second too late. As he turned to swat the child away, Julian exploded into motion. He lunged across the room with terrifying speed, his broad shoulders slamming into David’s chest with the force of a freight train. The silver blade clattered harmlessly against the hardwood floor, spinning away into the shadows as the two brothers tumbled violently over the antique rug.
Maya scrambled away from the scuffle, sobbing heavily as Elena scooped her up into her arms, frantically pulling the little girl toward the hallway and out of the line of fire. Lily stood frozen near the window, watching her father pin David to the floor with a series of brutal, calculated strikes.
Julian straddled his brother, his tattooed forearm pressing hard against David’s throat, cutting off his air supply. David clawed desperately at Julian’s wrists, his arrogant facade completely shattered, replaced by the panicked gasps of a drowning man.
"You're... you're too late, Julian," David choked out, a bloody smile forming on his lips even as his vision began to blur at the edges. "The... the transmission has already started. The board... the press... everyone knows about Lily. Everyone knows what you did five years ago."
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Julian paused, his fist hovering inches from David’s face as a cold dread settled deep in his stomach. He slowly turned his head toward the mahogany desk in the corner of the nursery, where a secure terminal was glowing with an incoming data transfer signal. On the screen, a progress bar ticked steadily toward one hundred percent, transmitting the hidden vault files straight to the national news networks.
David wheezed a laugh beneath Julian's grip. "The secret is out, brother. Your empire dies today."
