The silence of the Sullivan estate was no longer the peaceful quiet of luxury; it was the heavy, suffocating stillness of a tomb.Outside the massive doors, chaos had already begun.The black SUVs of the Sullivan sons and their families screeched to a halt in the driveway.The wives were the first to notice the shift.Alessandra and the second wife were at each other’s throats before they even cleared the gravel, their voices shrill with fear and irritation.“I told you Robert was being too reckless with these buyers,” Alessandra hissed, clutching her designer bag like a shield. “Look at the gate! Security isn’t even checking our IDs. And the rose garden… there are boot prints everywhere. Heavy, tactical prints!”“Shut up, Alessandra!” the other snapped, her eyes darting to the empty perimeter.“Where is everyone? Where’s the Architect’s wall of meat? It’s like the house is abandoned.”They shoved through the front doors, the sons, Marcello, Victor, and the others, following close behi

Zarek didn’t want to talk much after that. He had confirmed what he came to confirm.The family was innocent, ignorant of what their fathers and husbands had done, ignorant of how Robert had joined in the slaughter of an innocent family.The heavy silence that followed was thick with the sharp scent of ozone from the security shutters.Zarek surveyed the panicked faces before him… men and women who had lived their entire lives cocooned in stolen wealth, oblivious to the blood mixed into the mortar of their own home.“I’ve seen enough,” Zarek said, his voice regaining its chilling, level authority. “It’s clear none of you has the slightest idea whose chair you’ve been sitting in. Your father took something from my family, a legacy he thought he could bury under marble and lies. I’m simply here to take it back.”He gestured toward the grand staircase.“I suggest you all go upstairs. Shower. Wash the filth of your ignorance off. I want everyone to be ready for a formal meeting in one hou

Hearing that, Masha frowned.She had no idea her son was that important. Shaw spoke of him with such respect, and she was only now trying to understand the boy who had just come back.‘He must have joined some terrible gang,’ she thought. ‘If he was fine dealing with Robert alone, then he must truly be part of something dangerous.’“Obstacles,” Masha repeated, the word tasting like iron in her mouth.She looked at Shaw, her eyes searching his hardened face for any sign of a lie.“You talk about him as if he’s a general, Shaw. As if he’s someone who makes decisions for the world… not a boy who was locked in a cellar.”She paced the short length of the rug, her heels clicking in a frantic rhythm.“A gang. That’s what this is, isn’t it? He went missing for days here and there over the years, and I thought he was hiding. But he joined someone. Someone like you. Professional killers who think they can take on a man like Robert Sullivan.”Shaw watched her, his expression unreadable.He saw

Victor’s words were cut short.In a blur of motion no one in the room could follow, Zarek’s hand shot out. He didn’t punch Victor. He caught the pointing finger, the good hand, and twisted it with the casual indifference of someone snapping a dry twig.Victor’s scream collapsed into a choked howl as his knees slammed into the floor.“I told you,” Zarek whispered, bending down until his lips hovered inches from Victor’s ear, his voice terrifyingly calm despite the twitch in his eye. “Every word costs a limb. You’ve been very expensive today, Victor.”He didn’t release him.Instead, Zarek lifted his gaze and looked around the table. The others were frozen, paralyzed by a level of horror they had never known.“Does anyone else have something they’d like to say?” Zarek asked mildly. “Or are we finally ready to discuss the bill?”Victor’s agonized shriek filled the room, a jagged sound that made Enzo and Nico clamp their hands over their ears. When Zarek finally let go, Victor collapsed

Zarek leaned back, his eyes like polished obsidian.He tapped a command on the table’s surface, and a speaker hidden in the ceiling crackled to life with a burst of static.“The line is open,” Zarek said. “He can hear you. And more importantly… You can hear him.”From the speaker came heavy, ragged breathing and the clinking of chains.The static cleared, replaced by a heavy, rhythmic thud, the sound of a fist striking a reinforced door.Thud.Thud.Thud.Then the breathing returned.Deep.Ragged.Saturated with a cold, familiar malice.“Robert,” Alessandra said, her voice echoing into the ceiling.The thudding stopped instantly.The silence that followed was more terrifying than the noise.“Alessandra?” Robert’s voice rasped through the speaker, stripped of its usual polish but none of its bite. “Why is the house so quiet? Where are the guards? Tell Victor to get down here and open this door before I skin him alive.”One look at her husband told Alessandra what Zarek had done to him.