Chapter 15 - The woman stepped into the casino.The doors closed behind her.
Nobody spoke.
Mason looked devastated.
“You're supposed to be dead.”
She smiled.
“So was Mom.”
Ana flinched.
Dominic lowered his weapon.
“What do you want?”
The woman looked at me.
“Her.”
I stepped backward.
“No.”
She laughed softly.
“I'm not here to hurt you.”
“Then why are you here?”
“Because Elias lied.”
My stomach tightened.
“What about?”
“Everything.”
Marlowe, still bleeding, walked toward her.
“Lena.”
So that was her name.
Lena looked at him.
“You still owe me.”
“I know.”
She held up the photograph.
“Tell her.”
Marlowe looked at me.
I felt sick.
“Tell me what?”
He sighed.
“Your father had another child.”
“I know.”
“No.”
He shook his head.
“You have another sister.”
The room went silent.
I looked at Lena.
She nodded.
“My name is Lena Reed.”
Mason stared.
“Then you're not my sister.”
“Not by blood.”
She smiled.
“But by law.”
“What does that mean?”
Lena walked toward me.
“When your father created the trust, he named three heirs.”
“Me.”
“Adrian.”
“And you.”
She pointed toward herself.
“But there was a condition.”
“What?”
“If one heir died, control passed to the remaining two.”
I understood.
“That's why Elias tried to kill me.”
“Yes.”
“And Adrian?”
“He's alive.”
Everyone turned.
Adrian stepped forward.
Lena looked at him.
“He has always been alive.”
I looked at my brother.
“You knew?”
“I knew.”
“Why did you let me believe you were dead?”
“Because Elias believed it.”
I almost laughed.
Everyone had been lying.
Everyone had been protecting me.
Everyone had been using me.
The only person who had never pretended was the stranger I'd asked to act like he loved me.
Dominic.
He stepped closer.
“Claire.”
I looked at him.
“Did my father really trust you?”
“Yes.”
“Did you betray him?”
“No.”
“Did you ever use me?”
He was silent.
My heart sank.
Finally, he said:
“At the beginning.”
I stared.
“How?”
“I allowed Mason to approach you.”
My breath stopped.
“You knew?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because I was investigating Elias.”
“And me?”
“You were part of the investigation.”
I stepped away.
“What changed?”
Dominic looked at me.
“You did.”
I swallowed.
“When?”
“The night you asked me to pretend I loved you.”
He smiled faintly.
“That was the first time anyone asked me to choose.”
I looked at him.
“And what did you choose?”
“You.”
Everything went quiet.
But Lena interrupted.
“That's touching.”
She placed a folder on the roulette table.
“But you still haven't heard the worst part.”
I opened it.
Bank records.
The four hundred million account.
Another account.
Another.
And another.
The combined total was staggering.
But one account had no owner.
Just a code.
PROJECT CROWN.
“What is this?”
Lena's face became serious.
“The account your father died protecting.”
“What does it contain?”
She looked at Dominic.
“Names.”
“Whose names?”
“Everyone involved in the organization.”
I stared.
“Then destroy it.”
“No.”
“Why?”
“Because if we destroy it, they'll come after you forever.”
I looked at the ledger.
“What should I do?”
Lena smiled.
“Become untouchable.”
“How?”
“Take control.”
Dominic stepped beside me.
“That means becoming what your father feared.”
I looked at him.
“What did he fear?”
“That you would become like him.”
I stared at the casino.
At the money.
At the names.
At everything that had been stolen from me.
Mason approached.
“Claire.”
I turned.
He looked broken.
“I know I don't deserve forgiveness.”
“You don't.”
He nodded.
“But I owe you the truth.”
He handed me his phone.
“Open the last file.”
I did.
A video appeared.
Mason.
Months earlier.
Talking to someone off-camera.
Elias.
Mason said:
“I won't kill her.”
Elias answered:
“Then I'll kill you.”
Mason looked into the camera.
“I said no.”
Then he turned it off.
I looked at him.
“You recorded this?”
“Yes.”
“For me?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
He swallowed.
“Because I knew one day you'd want to know whether I ever chose you.”
I closed my eyes.
“I don't forgive you.”
“I know.”
“But thank you.”
Mason nodded.
Then he walked away.
Adrian joined him.
Ana stood behind me.
Marlowe disappeared into the hallway.
Lena watched from a distance.
Soon, only Dominic and I remained beside the roulette table.
The same place where we'd met.
I looked down.
“You realize this started because I needed a stranger to pretend to love me.”
Dominic smiled.
“And now?”
I looked around the empty casino.
“No more pretending.”
He stepped closer.
“Good.”
I reached for his hand.
Then every television screen in the casino turned on.
Elias appeared.
He looked older.
Tired.
But smiling.
“Congratulations, Claire.”
I froze.
“You have the ledger.”
He leaned closer to the camera.
“You have the money.”
“You have your family.”
“Soon, you'll have the empire.”
I stared.
“Why are you doing this?”
Elias smiled.
“Because I wanted to see what you'd become.”
The screen changed.
A satellite photograph appeared.
A private island.
Dozens of armed men.
A mansion.
And a flag with the Bennett family symbol.
My heart stopped.
Elias spoke again.
“That isn't my empire.”
The screen showed another photograph.
My father.
Standing beside a much younger Dominic.
Then another.
Me as a baby.
And finally one last image.
A woman I had never seen.
She was sitting inside the island mansion.
Alive.
Waiting.
Elias's voice dropped.
“Your father's first wife.”
I stared.
“Your real grandmother.”
The screen went black.
Dominic looked at me.
“What do you want to do?”
I looked at the island.
Then at the ledger.
Then at him.
For the first time, I didn't feel like a victim.
I felt something else.
Something colder.
Something stronger.
I picked up my father's ledger.
“We're going to finish what he started.”
Dominic nodded.
“And if they come for us?”
I looked toward the dark casino floor.
“Then they learn one thing.”
“What?”
I smiled.
“I'm not the woman who asked a stranger for protection anymore.”
I closed the ledger.
“I'm the woman they should have been afraid of.”
Outside, the first sunlight of morning touched the city.
But far away, on a private island surrounded by black water, a woman opened her eyes.
She looked at a photograph of me.
Then at another photograph of Dominic.
And finally at the photograph of my father.
She whispered:
“Let them come.”
A man standing behind her asked:
“Should we tell Claire who you are?”
The woman smiled.
“No.”
She picked up the photograph.
“Let her find out the hard way.”
And beneath the photograph was a single name.
ELEANOR BENNETT.
My grandmother.
The woman who had supposedly died before I was born.
The woman who now controlled the last empire my father had tried to destroy.
And the woman who had just ordered every door in the city to be closed against me.
May you like
The game had never ended.
It had only changed owners.
