Chapter 9 - The Debt Paid
The grand foyer fell into a heavy, suffocating silence.
Marco Vance gasped for air, his nose bleeding, looking up at the young Don he had tried so hard to usurp.
"Elias..." Marco wheezed, holding up his hands. "It was business... your father wanted her line gone... I only followed orders!"
Elias stopped two feet away from the old man.
"You didn't just follow orders, Marco," Elias said, his voice flat, devoid of any human warmth. "You took pleasure in burning that house. I watched you laugh from the treeline."
Seraphina stepped forward, holding Leo against her hip, watching the man who had destroyed her childhood. The scar on her shoulder burned beneath her clothes, a quiet testament to twenty years of pain.
Marco looked past Elias at Seraphina, his eyes filled with terrified awe. "She's a curse... her bloodline will destroy our shipping licenses..."
"Her bloodline," Elias corrected smoothly, "is now under the protection of the Moretti family."
Elias turned his head slightly toward Stefan, who was being tended to by a medic. "Take Marco to our deep security facility in Genoa. Ensure his international assets are transferred to the Laurent estate fund by midnight."
"You can't do this!" Marco screamed as two broad guards hauled him off his knees, dragging him toward the back exit. "I built this empire!"
"My father built it on lies," Elias cold voice followed him down the hall. "I am rebuilding it on truth."
When the heavy doors closed behind Marco Vance, the estate fell completely quiet.
Elias dropped the tactical rifle onto a side table. He turned around, his posture suddenly slumping slightly as the exhaustion and pain of his side wound caught up with him.
Seraphina handed Leo to a waiting housemaid, walking quickly to Elias’s side, supporting his weight as he stumbled toward the plush sofa.
"Sit down," she ordered gently, her voice firm. "You're bleeding through your shirt."
Elias sat down, looking up at her face, his gray eyes soft, vulnerable, and clear.
"You protected my son twice today," Elias murmured, his hand reaching out to touch her fingers.
"And you took a bullet for me," she replied, a gentle smile touching her lips.
May you like
"It seems," Elias whispered softly, "our debts are settled, Valerie."
"My name is Seraphina," she said gently, pressing a clean cloth against his side. "And I'm not going anywhere."
