Chapter 80 - The Gathering of Wolves
Evelyn spun around at the sound of the opening doors, a small chrome revolver clutched in her right hand.
Her hair was disheveled, her expensive coat torn and soaked with melted slush, the veneer of aristocratic grandeur completely shattered. Behind her on the massive LED monitors, digital transfer bars were creeping upward—she was attempting an emergency hard-wire transfer of the bullion's sovereign certificates to anonymous shadow accounts in the South Pacific.
"Step away from the console, Evelyn," Emma said, her voice dropping into a flat, terrifying calm. She lowered Lily to her feet behind her, keeping her sidearm leveled dead-center at her mother’s chest.
"You ungrateful little wretch!" Evelyn hissed, her eyes wild, the gun shaking in her grasp. "I built this dynasty! I bled for thirty years to keep the Laurent name from crumbling under the weight of politicians and tax courts! And you... you throw it all to the scavengers for the sake of a bastard child!"
"Lily is not a bastard," Emma said, taking a deliberate step forward. "She is the rightful heir. You were nothing more than a caretaker who grew drunk on power she never earned."
"I am the matriarch!" Evelyn shrieked, raising the revolver toward Emma’s face. "The Directorate answers to me!"
"The Directorate is dead, Evelyn," a voice echoed from the doorway.
Daniel walked in, his arm bloody from a grazing bullet, his face pale but victorious. Behind him stood Viktor, holding a smoking rifle, the hallway behind them falling completely silent. The Iron Guard had been neutralized.
Evelyn looked between the guns aimed at her, her chest heaving, the transfer progress bar on the console behind her suddenly freezing at 99%.
*"Biometric collision detected,"* the computer’s automated female voice intoned across the vault. *"Secondary regent authority superseded. Sovereign Heir detected in vault perimeter. Please present authentication."*
"Lily," Emma whispered softly without taking her eyes off Evelyn. "Go to the scanner."
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Lily stepped out from behind Emma’s legs. She didn't look at the gun in Evelyn’s shaking hand. With steady, deliberate steps, the eight-year-old girl walked up to the central pedestal. She looked straight into the retinal scanner's green laser aperture and pressed her small palm onto the glass sensor plate.
*"Genetic match confirmed: Lily Laurent. Sovereign line verified. Full executive authority granted."*
