Chapter 7 - THE TOWER
The standoff in the penthouse office was a powder keg waiting for a match. Sebastian stood his ground, caught between the brother who had tried to murder him and the sister who had returned as a ghost with a mercenary army.
Genevieve leaned heavily against the doorframe, clutching her bleeding shoulder. "The syndicate isn't cheap, Arthur. But it turns out, offering them a hostile takeover of the Stellan empire was enough to buy their loyalty."
The lead mercenary, a scarred man with the Black Orchid tattoo on his neck, stepped forward. He kicked Arthur’s gun out of his hand and shoved him to his knees.
Arthur looked up at his sister, his arrogant mask finally cracking into genuine panic. "Genevieve, be reasonable. We can split the assets. You don't have to do this."
"You locked me in a cage for a decade!" Genevieve screamed, her voice cracking with raw, unhealed agony. "You pumped me full of drugs and told me I was dead!"
Sebastian watched his sister. Beneath the anger, beneath the syndicate backing, he saw the terrified younger girl who used to hide in his shadow. "Gen," Sebastian said softly, lowering his weapon.
She snapped her gaze to him. "Don't 'Gen' me, Sebastian. You didn't come looking for me. You just moved on. You had your perfect little life. Your perfect little daughter."
"I thought you were in the ground," Sebastian replied, his voice steady, carrying no anger, only profound sorrow. "If I had known, I would have burned the world down to find you."
Genevieve's tough facade wavered. A tear cut a clean line through the soot on her cheek.
"The birth certificate," Sebastian said, tossing the forged document onto the floor between them. "Why, Gen? Why try to claim Lily?"
Genevieve looked at the paper, then back at Sebastian. "Because Arthur was going to kill her, too."
Reversal. The air left Sebastian’s lungs.
"Arthur knew you were leaving the company to Lily in your new trust," Genevieve explained, her voice shaking. "He hired the syndicate to take her out tonight. I forged the certificate and hired my own team to snatch her first. I wasn't trying to steal your daughter, Sebastian. I was trying to save her."
Sebastian looked down at Arthur, who was kneeling on the carpet, sweating profusely. The rage in Sebastian’s chest eclipsed anything he had ever felt. He had punched men for looking at Lily the wrong way. The fact that his own blood had ordered a hit on a six-year-old child was a sin that could only be paid in one currency.
Sebastian raised his gun, pointing it directly at his brother’s head.
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"Wait," the lead mercenary suddenly interrupted, cocking his assault rifle. He aimed it not at Arthur, but at Sebastian. "Change of plans. The Stellan accounts just locked for the holiday. Only the CEO's biometric scan can open them."
The mercenary smiled, a cold, dead expression. "We don't need you dead, Mr. Stellan. We just need your daughter. Bring the kid up here, and maybe we let you live."
