Chapter 17 - The Bloodline of Serpents
The room went completely still.
The horror of the revelation washed over me like a wave of icy water.
"Nathan and Victor Vance..." I whispered, my voice barely audible.
"Nathan was Victor Vance's nephew," my father confirmed grimly.
"When Nathan married you four years ago, it wasn't just a marriage of ambition."
"It was an arranged infiltration planned by the Vance family before Nathan ever set foot in Chicago."
"They knew your late mother's family trust held the ancient Zurich banking charter."
"Nathan was the weapon they groomed for twenty years to claim it."
I stood up from my desk, walking slowly over to the window looking out over the dark, quiet grounds of the estate.
Every memory of my four-year marriage replayed in my mind with terrifying new clarity.
The sudden, orchestrated meeting at the charity gala.
Nathan's unnatural interest in my mother's family history.
The way Celeste Monroe had entered our lives—not as a random mistress, but as Victor Vance's trusted handler sent to accelerate the plan when Nathan began losing his nerve.
"Where is he now, Dad?" I asked, my voice steady, stripped of all shock, leaving behind only lethal focus.
"My satellite network tracked a unscheduled private jet flight from Milwaukee to a private island off the coast of Maine two hours ago," my father answered, taking a silver satellite phone from his pocket.
"The island belongs to an unregistered offshore corporation managed by the Vance estate."
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"Nathan isn't running away, Elena."
"He's gathering the remaining Vance enforcers for one final strike."
