Chapter 29 - Sister Against Sister
The command room was silent except for the rhythmic hum of supercomputers running file-deletion protocols.
Victoria stood before a massive wall of monitors, watching the Vance empire’s final digital records burn to ash. Her crimson gown was gone, replaced by a black flight suit. She held a customized combat revolver, her hand rock-steady.
"You're too late, Rosalie," Victoria said softly, not even looking back as we entered. "Every offshore account, every piece of real estate, every shell company... it’s all gone. Catherine’s legacy is wiped clean. If I can’t have it, nobody will."
"I never wanted Catherine's dirty money," Rosalie said, stepping forward, lowering her weapon slightly. "I only wanted my life back. The life you and mother tried to steal."
Victoria turned around, her face twisted in bitter mockery. "You were always the weak one. The fragile little princess who needed mommy to buy her friends and daddy to protect her from the dark. Mother knew you didn't have the stomach for what it takes to survive in this world."
"And what did it take, Victoria?" Rosalie asked, her voice calm, devoid of fear. "To become a killer? To hide in bunkers and send hit squads after your own blood? Mother didn't love you, Victoria. She used you as an attack dog, and when the dog got too dangerous, she locked you outside."
The words struck deeper than any bullet. Victoria’s eyes flared with unhinged fury. "Shut up!"
She raised the revolver, aiming directly at Rosalie’s forehead.
Before she could pull the trigger, I fired a single shot.
The bullet tore clean through Victoria’s right shoulder, the impact spinning her around and sending the revolver skittering across the concrete floor.
She slammed against the server rack, gasping in agony as blood soaked her black suit.
I walked over, kicking the revolver out of reach, my rifle leveled at her chest. "It’s over, Victoria."
Victoria leaned against the server bank, laughing weakly through the pain, blood bubbling at the corner of her lips. She looked up at Rosalie, her slate-gray eyes glittering with a terrifying, dying triumph.
"You think... you think Catherine and I were the top of the food chain, little sister?" Victoria whispered, her breath shallow. "You think Victor Kane was the master?"
Rosalie stepped closer, kneeling just out of reach. "What are you talking about?"
"Catherine... was just a provincial money launderer," Victoria gasped, her eyes rolling back slightly as shock set in. "The Obsidian Cadre... isn’t a company. It’s an alliance. Twelve families across the globe. You destroyed two of them... but you just woke up the other ten."
Victoria coughed, her hand trembling as she tapped a hidden keystroke on the server console beside her.
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"The Obsidian Protocol... has been initialized," she wheezed with a dying smile. "They know who you are, Alexander Sinclair. And they know where your father's true secrets are buried."
Her head slumped forward. Her vitals flatlined on the biometric monitor on her wrist.
