Chapter 5
Chapter 5: Unseen Threads
The flashbulbs flared relentlessly, creating a blinding curtain of light around them. The entire financial world was watching the arrogant Morrison family disintegrate beneath the feet of the Escalante heiress.
Mariana stepped closer to Andrew, leaning down slightly.
"Do you remember what you said to me last night, Andrew?" Her voice was soft, yet every high-definition microphone captured every syllable. "You told me to kneel. You told me to crawl out of your house."
"I was crazy! I was an idiot! Please, Mariana, give me one more chance!" Andrew sobbed, reaching out desperately to grasp the hem of her trousers.
Mariana took a clean step back, avoiding his touch.
"I gave you four years," she said, her smile turning icy. "And you used every single day of those four years to prove you never deserved basic human decency."
She turned her back, gliding gracefully up the red carpet toward the grand entrance of the summit.
"Mr. Julian," Mariana spoke without looking back. "Execute the asset seizure immediately. Within two hours, I want every member of the Morrison family removed from this city."
"Understood, Miss Escalante!"
Andrew shrieked in absolute ruin as security dragged him, his mother, and Brenda away from the venue. He watched in agony as Mariana’s regal silhouette disappeared behind the hotel's gilded glass doors.
However...
The moment Mariana stepped into the private elevator heading toward the penthouse suite, a hidden phone in her jacket vibrated.
It was an encrypted line—a number known to only three people in the entire world.
She answered it. On the other end, a deep, menacing, and chillingly familiar voice rang out—a voice belonging to the man believed to have vanished five years ago during the bloody family succession war:
"Quite a dramatic show of revenge, my dear little sister... But did you truly believe a fool like Andrew Morrison acted all on his own?"
Mariana froze. Her eyes narrowed dangerously.
The voice on the line chuckled softly. "Check that 'cheap' brown leather purse you carried out of the mansion last night... We’ve been waiting for you to activate the master Escalante Global security key for five long years."
Mariana reached down and opened her leather bag.
May you like
Inside, the black encrypted hard drive... was blinking with an unfamiliar, ominous red light.
The elevator doors slid shut, sealing her in suffocating silence.
