Chapter 5 - The Inheritance of Blood
The color drained entirely from Lily’s face, confirming every word before she could form a lie to deny it.
The silence in the underground office was absolute, broken only by the faint, rhythmic beep of the computer monitor as Leo's screen finally hit 100% Complete and went completely black.
"Judge Vance isn't just your uncle's estranged colleague, is he, Marcus?" I asked without breaking eye contact with Lily. "He's Lily's father. The DeLuca syndicate wasn't running Chicago. The judicial system was using Adrian as a front to launder money through municipal real estate projects, with Lily acting as the architect."
Marcus looked stunned, his pistol still aimed at the guards, his eyes shifting slowly toward Lily. "Thomas... has no daughters. He never married."
"He had a family out of state," I said, recalling a stray comment Adrian made three years ago during a drunken late-night argument before we got engaged—a comment I had ignored at the time. "An illegitimate daughter he hid behind a trust fund and a fake childhood backstory. Lily didn't have a weak heart, Marcus. She had a convenient excuse to insert herself into Adrian's life whenever the syndicate needed a clean intermediary who didn't look like a criminal."
Lily slowly lowered her hands, the sharp, arrogant facade melting away into something cold, calculating, and intensely dangerous. She didn't look panicked anymore. She looked like a trapped animal that had just decided to chew off its own leg to survive.
"You really should have just taken the Toyota Corolla and kept driving, Evelyn," Lily whispered, her voice dropping an octave into a chillingly calm register. "You think my father is going to let a federal agent walk out of this basement with those papers? You think the Department of Justice is going to prosecute a sitting federal judge based on stolen documents found in an unsanctioned search?"
Before Marcus could answer, the secure radio on his belt shrieked with static, cutting through the tense air of the room.
“Agent Vance! Agent Vance, respond! We have an emergency at the federal safehouse holding facility downtown!”
Marcus pressed his shoulder mic, his eyes never leaving Lily’s guards. "Vance here. Go ahead."
“It’s DeLuca. He’s gone.”
My heart slammed against my ribs. "Gone? What do you mean he's gone? He was in a maximum-security federal holding cell!"
“A tactical team with federal credentials presented a high-priority transfer order signed ten minutes ago by Judge Thomas Vance himself. They walked right in and took him out the back service bay.”
Marcus froze, his face turning pale.
May you like
Lily smiled—a slow, terrifyingly serene smile that reached all the way to her eyes.
"My father doesn't lose, Evelyn," Lily said softly, taking a step backward toward the hallway while her guards kept their weapons trained on us. "And neither do I. Enjoy your freedom while you can. Because by morning, you won't just be an uninvited bride—you'll be an unregistered fugitive."
