The moment I step into the room, my calm, cultured veneer evaporates. I feel myself melt into the soldier I warned myself I never wanted to become. Henri’s eyes widen when he sees me, but there’s no fear—just the arrogance of a man who believes he’s untouchable.
“How did you get in?” he asks.
“Shut up!” I grab him, drag him against the wall, and the first words out of my mouth are cold, lethal. “Tell me everything. Now.”
At first, he tries to maintain composure. Haughty, measured, practiced. But the weight of the evidence, the inevitability of the confrontation, crushes him. Slowly, grudgingly, he confesses.
“I…I worked with the Kovals,” he admits, voice tight, almost pleading. “I thought it was the only way…the only way to restore the Laurent empire.”
My hand tightens around his collar. I can smell the fear now. I can feel the contempt rising like fire.
“Your empire?” I hiss. “Your legacy? Is that more important than your daughter? Your wife? Everything you swore to protect?”
He meets my gaze, pale but defiant. “My name…my legacy…it will always matter most.”
Disgust, cold and sharp, seeps into my bones. I realize in that moment that some men are monsters, not because they crave power, but because they’ve decided that love and loyalty are liabilities.
I step back, letting him slide down the wall, trembling. My gun rests loosely in my hand, but I don’t need it right now. He’s already defeated—not by violence, but by the weight of his own betrayal.
While Henri tries to bribe me with expensive offers and connections, I pull out my phone and call Niko and Lev, filling them in.
They arrive within thirty minutes, flanked by our men. Henri looks up at them, pale, defeated, still trying to hold on to the scraps of his dignity. Lev doesn’t even spare him a glance—just waits for my order.
“Burn it,” I say.
And that’s it.
No hesitation. No questions.
We burn the entire system down.
Every shell company Henri funneled money through? Gone.
Every broker who signed off on the deals? Disappeared from every database that ever existed.
Every account? Liquidated, frozen, or buried so deep it might as well be ash.
I tear apart years of careful laundering and pristine public image until there is nothing left but scorched earth. The Rusnak empire’s spotless reputation will fracture—but I don’t care. I would raze every continent twice over if it meant Vivian was safe.
When we finish, Lev drags Henri up by the collar and leads him out.
“Put him in a holding cell,” I say. “Treat him like a traitor. Nothing more.”
Niko nods, eyes hard.
Henri doesn’t fight. He just goes limp in their grip, stripped of power, stripped of legacy, stripped of the arrogance that made him think he could gamble his daughter’s life.
Later that night, when the world outside finally stills, I sit alone in my office. The lights are dim. The city glows against the window like a distant fire. My reflection stares back at me: cold eyes, tight jaw, blood still drying on my shirt collar.
This marriage started as leverage.
A transaction.
A weapon.
But it doesn’t feel that way anymore.
As I sit there, breathing hard, a truth I’ve tried to avoid sinks its claws into me:
