Chapter 8 - The Wedding She Almost Missed Because of One Last ThreatWe planned the wedding for spring.
Small.
Private.
Family.
Delaney wanted yellow flowers.
Lena wanted blue ribbons.
I wanted everyone to stop giving me opinions.
Nobody listened.
The night before the wedding, Delaney disappeared.
Not kidnapped.
She walked out.
She had received a message.
A photograph.
Victor.
Alive.
And beneath it:
THEY KNOW WHERE YOUR BROTHER IS.
Lena found her first.
They were at the old greenhouse.
The same place where we had found the evidence.
I arrived.
Delaney looked at me.
“He isn't coming.”
“Who?”
“Victor.”
I stared.
“Where is he?”
She pointed toward the floor.
A trapdoor.
Underneath was a note.
The family ends when Leon stops protecting the name.
I understood.
The final threat wasn't about money.
It was about forcing me to become the man I hated.
I refused.
I called law enforcement.
I called my lawyers.
I called everyone.
No secrets.
No private revenge.
No violence.
Victor surrendered the next morning.
He wasn't the mastermind.
He was a frightened man who had spent twenty years running.
He told the truth.
The last person responsible was already dead.
Richard Voss had died abroad months earlier.
Victor had been living under orders.
The family organization was finished.
The wedding went ahead.
Delaney stood beside Lena.
I watched Lena walk toward me.
She smiled.
“You look nervous.”
“I am.”
“Good.”
“You're not going to run?”
“No.”
“Promise?”
She held my face.
“I chose you.”
I smiled.
Then she whispered:
“But I still choose me.”
I laughed.
“That sounds fair.”
“It is.”
We married beneath the oak trees.
No empire.
No guards.
No secrets.
May you like
Just family.
And a woman who had once been a maid in my house standing beside me as my equal.
