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Chapter 189: The final threshold
Lizzy shook her head slowly, her gaze distant. “It was… Frank. And men with guns. It was all so fast. So loud.” Her voice broke. “My father… he tried to protect us.”“Is there anyone you could say had planned this with the assailants from within? There must have been someone who was feeding them intel.”Lizzy’s eyes flickered for a second, a memory of Rose standing up in the vault, of Chloe’s cold alertness. Then she saw Emma’s hollow face, felt the phantom weight of her father’s body. The family was already shattered. To tear it apart further with accusations, to send more members to prison… what would it achieve? More scandal. More pain. William was gone. Nothing would bring him back.“Everyone of us were hostages,” Lizzy whispered. “So, there’s no way I could say that one of us was behind the attack by the assailants.”When the detectives were done with interrogating those present, and compared the notes, the stories aligned. A home invasion by a vengeful ex-con and son-in-law,
Chapter 188: The broken house
Ethan froze, his hand outstretched, the plea dying on his lips. Emma’s scream was a wall more impenetrable than steel. It wasn’t just grief; it was an accusation, a verdict, and a banishment all in one.“Get away from me! All of you!”Her eyes, when they finally lifted from her grandfather’s still face, were not just filled with tears. They were scorched earth. They swept over Ethan, over Rose and Chloe who stood like statues amidst the wreckage, over Leif who was helping a sobbing Lizzy to her feet. There was no distinction between conspirator, betrayer, or failed protector in that gaze. They were all architects of this moment. They were all poison.The vault, a moment ago a arena of frantic violence, now felt like a tomb. The sterile white light glinted off the blood on the floor, William’s blood, a dark accusation against the polished steel.Ethan took a slow, deliberate step back, lowering his hands. The gun felt suddenly obscene in his grip. He let it fall to the floor with a h
Chapter 187: The currency of blood
The ultimatum was a merciless one. Ethan held Vex's life. Frank held Emma's and her child's. The Crown, now inert, sat forgotten on the floor where Frank had dropped it. The treasure was meaningless. The only currency left was blood.In the frozen tableau of the vault, with confession hanging in the air and despair thick enough to taste, Ethan made a choice.It wasn't a calculation. There was no safe angle, no guarantee. It was a gambler's throw, a desperate lunge at a sliver of light between certainties. He saw the micro-tremor in Frank's gun arm, the split-second distraction as the man savored his dominance.Ethan moved.He didn't drop his gun from Vex's head; he pivoted it in a blur, the barrel swinging up and across the room. He didn't aim for Frank's center mass—Emma was in the way. He aimed for the exposed triangle of Frank's shoulder above Emma's head, a shot so narrow it was a prayer.He fired.The crack of the gunshot was monstrous in the enclosed space. Emma screamed, flinc
Chapter 186: The Judas gambit
"This has gone far enough," Rose stated, her voice echoing in the vault. "The Crown is with you already. Your revenge is complete—you've humiliated them, taken the prize, and found it worthless. That's a more exquisite punishment than murder, don't you think? Now, we leave. With the artifact. And not to become massacrers in a sealed tomb. The plan was the Crown, not a bloodbath."The revelation was a second shockwave, almost as deafening as Ethan's unmasking. Rose and Chloe were not hostages. They were partners.Lizzy gasped, her hand flying to her mouth. Leif's jaw dropped, his world view shattering a second time in one night. His own mother... a conspirator with the man holding them at gunpoint. The betrayal was so profound it felt like a physical punch.Even Emma, drowning in her own personal abyss, stared in fresh horror. Her aunt? Her own flesh and blood, orchestrating this?Frank's face contorted with a mixture of fury and dawning understanding. He looked from Rose's cool, calcu
Chapter 185: The hollow prize
Frank got in Emma's face, his breath hot and angry. "You think this is a negotiation? You think your morals matter here?" He pointed a rigid finger at William. "You will place your eye on that scanner and give me access to that crown, or you will watch me put a bullet in your grandfather's head. Right here. Right now."Emma's blood ran cold. She looked at William, at his pale, defiant face. She saw the love there, and the silent plea for her to be strong, not to yield.Frank spread his arms wide, a grotesque showman. "You know what, Emma, let's be perfectly clear." His voice was chillingly calm. "You will open the crown's chamber. If you refuse, or try anything clever, I will not just kill your grandfather. I will have my men execute your entire family, one by one, in front of you.”He let his words settle, seeing through Emma just how scared she had now become, and that was exactly what he wanted. So he continued with his threats.“We will start with the old man, then your mother, t
Chapter 184: The unmasking
“Almighty Ethan Northsrum,” Frank said, his lips curling into a deceptive smirk. “Or should I say, A.M.E.N.” He added.The shock in the cellar was not silent; it was a deafening vacuum that swallowed all sound. The drip of water, the ragged breaths—they faded into a white-noise hum beneath the roaring in Emma’s ears.A.M.E.N.The acronym hung in the damp air, no longer just a name on legal documents or a whispered legend in a prison yard. It had a face. Ethan’s face, now pale and set in a mask of grim acceptance as he knelt in the dirt, Frank’s revelation hanging between them like a verdict.For Emma, the world didn’t just tilt; it shattered. The foundation of every moment they’d shared—the intense courtship, the whispered promises, the life growing inside her—cracked and fell away, revealing a gaping, treacherous void. Every conversation, every touch, was retroactively poisoned. It hadn’t been love. It had been strategy. He was A.M.E.N., and he had targeted the Robbins. He had targ
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