Chapter 4 - The Price of Survival
Victor Van Doren was not a man to accept defeat. The retaliation was swift and catastrophic. A series of coordinated hits turned the city into a battlefield, targeting Dante’s safehouses, his shipments, and his men.
The siege on the Serrano estate was a symphony of violence. Glass shattered, and the walls groaned under the impact of heavy ordinance. Dante fought with the ferocity of a man defending his own redemption, but he was overwhelmed. As he collapsed, clutching a fresh wound in his chest, he looked up to see Clara moving through the smoke.
She was no longer the fragile heiress. She was an avatar of retribution, using the very tactics she had learned from his enemies. She moved with a silent, lethal grace, neutralizing guards with surgical efficiency.
She dragged Dante into the sub-basement of the estate, a place he had reinforced for emergencies. "You die only when I say you die," she told him, her voice cold and steady.
"They know who you are now," Dante gasped, his vision blurring. "There’s no going back. You've burnt the bridge, Clara."
May you like
Clara looked at the monitors showing her uncle’s private militia tearing his mansion apart. "I didn't burn the bridge, Dante. I blew it up. I’ve spent twenty years watching the world from beneath the dirt. It’s time they learned what it feels like to be buried alive."
In the darkness, she revealed her ace: she had spent the last two months leaking Victor’s offshore accounts to the International Regulatory Commission. She hadn't just been planning a killing; she was planning an extinction of his entire legacy.
