Chapter 20
"Thank you for meeting me, Claire," he said quietly.
"I'm not here for a reconciliation, Vincent," I said directly, reaching inside my coat pocket and pulling out the leather folder containing the intelligence documents. **“I’m here to give you a death warrant.”**
Vincent's brow furrowed in confusion as he accepted the heavy folder. "What is this?"
"Open it," I commanded.
Vincent unbuckled the leather strap and flipped open the document. He began to read.
As his eyes swept across the DNA reports, the bank transfer logs involving my parents, and the secret meeting logs between Sophia and Julian Rossi, the change in his face was terrifying to watch.
The sorrow and fatigue vanished instantly, replaced by a cold, absolute, murderous stillness that turned his gray eyes into twin pieces of polished flint. The air around him seemed to drop to sub-zero temperatures.
**His hand gripped the paper so hard the leather folder crumpled in his fist.**
"Lucas..." Vincent rasped, his voice dropping an octave into a guttural, terrifying roar. "Lucas is not my son?"
"Julian Rossi has been raising his own son inside your house for seven years," I said coldly. "And my parents helped him do it so Julian could clear their debts. They are planning to eliminate you at the Leadership Summit this Friday."
Vincent lowered the folder, his chest rising and falling in deep, measured breaths as he processed the staggering scope of the betrayal. The entire foundation of his life—the heir he had abandoned his wife for, the woman he had placed in a luxury suite, the family alliance he had protected—was nothing more than a grotesque, engineered lie.
He slowly looked up at me, his eyes burning with an agonizing mix of fury and profound humiliation.
"You knew," Vincent whispered. "You knew about this and you still came to warn me?"
"I didn't come to warn you to save your life, Vincent," I said, stepping right up to his chest, looking into his eyes without fear. **“I came to warn you because Julian Rossi poses a threat to my daughter.** If he takes over your empire, he will hunt Emily down to erase any rival bloodline. You are going to handle Julian, and you are going to leave my daughter's name completely out of the blood fire."
Vincent stared at me, a sudden, tragic smile touching his lips—a smile of pure, self-loathing admiration for the fierce, unbroken woman standing before him.