Chapter 5 - The Reckoning
Marco walked slowly into the center of the room. He didn't look angry; he looked like an executioner who had arrived precisely on time.
"She was supposed to be dead, Charlotte?" Marco asked, his voice soft and terrifyingly calm. "Is that what you paid my men two million dollars for? A quiet execution before dawn?"
Charlotte’s gaze darted frantically between Marco and Jane, her mind racing, searching for a lie, a cover story, a way out.
"Marco... please," Charlotte stammered, stepping backward until her spine hit the mahogany bedpost. "You don't understand. The girl... she’s dangerous. She’s unstable! I was trying to protect—"
CRACK.
The sound of Marco’s hand striking Charlotte’s face echoed through the bedroom like a pistol shot. Charlotte hit the floor, clutching her red, swelling cheek, her silk gown tearing against the wood.
"Do not speak her name with that filthy mouth," Marco snarled, stepping over her. "You stole my sister’s daughter twenty-three years ago. You took Clara’s blood, locked her in an attic, treated her like a servant, and then tried to sell her back to me for blood money!"
Charlotte froze on the floor, her eyes wide with absolute horror. "You... you know?"
"We know everything, Charlotte," Jane said, stepping forward from behind Marco.
Jane looked down at the woman who had tormented her for over two decades. Seeing Charlotte cowering on the floor, stripped of her wealth, her guards, and her arrogance, Jane felt the last lingering shreds of her childhood trauma evaporate into thin air.
"You stole me from Clara Ross," Jane said, her voice dropping into a razor-sharp tone that mirrored Marco’s. "You forged my birth certificate. You stole my mother’s life, and then you tried to profit off my death."
Charlotte began to weep—not out of remorse, but out of absolute, panic-stricken self-preservation. She crawled forward on her hands and knees toward Marco’s polished leather shoes.
"Marco, please! I saved her!" Charlotte sobbed hysterically. "Clara was dying after the dock fire! The baby would have died! I took her in! I gave her a roof over her head! I gave her an education!"
"You gave her bruises!" Marco spat, kicking Charlotte’s hands away with cold disgust. "You used her as a human shield against the debt you owed to the syndicate!"
Marco pulled a thick stack of legal documents and offshore bank records from his coat pocket, throwing them down onto Charlotte’s face.
"Your offshore accounts in Zurich and Nassau have been seized," Marco informed her. "Your luxury properties are being foreclosed on by Duca holding companies morning at eight. You don't have a dollar left to your name. You don't have a home. And you don't have a future."
Charlotte stared at the documents scattered around her on the carpet, her breath hitching in her throat. "What are you going to do to me?"
May you like
Marco looked over at Jane.
"She is yours, Jane," Marco said softly. "The Duca syndicate belongs to you as much as it belongs to me. You decide her fate."
