Chapter 17 - The Phantom BenefactorPanic is a luxury that queens cannot afford.
Within sixty seconds of Andrew’s broadcast ending, our penthouse was locked down. Julian’s private security force swarmed the perimeter, and our elite cyber-division completely severed the external network, operating entirely on isolated, analog frequencies.
I didn't scream. I didn't cry. I walked straight down the hall to the nursery.
Leo was fast asleep, his tiny chest rising and falling in a peaceful, rhythmic slumber, clutching a stuffed velvet lion. I stood over his crib for a long moment, feeling a primal, catastrophic rage ignite inside my soul. The girl who had been bullied by the Kensington family was dead. I was a mother now. And I was going to burn the world to ash before I let a single spark touch my child.
I walked back out to the study. Julian was off the phone, his jaw locked, his green eyes swirling with a lethal, terrifying fury.
"He was released on parole three days ago," Julian reported, his voice dropping to a dangerous, freezing register. "Someone paid off the parole board. Paid off the federal judges. They completely wiped his digital footprint. He is a ghost."
"It takes billions to buy a federal judge, Julian," I said, pacing the length of the Persian rug. "Andrew doesn't have a dime. Who holds a grudge against my family deep enough to resurrect that parasite?"
The heavy oak doors to the study swung open. My father, Alejandro Escalante, walked in. He looked immaculate in his tuxedo, having just arrived from a gala downtown, but his face was carved from granite.
"I know who is funding him," my father said, his voice heavy with a dark, unspoken history.
He walked over to the mahogany desk and poured himself a glass of bourbon.
"Thirty years ago, before you were born, Mariana, I had a business partner," my father began, staring into the amber liquid. "His name was Silas Vanguard. He was brilliant, ruthless, and entirely devoid of a moral compass. We built the foundation of the Escalante empire together. But Silas started using our corporate infrastructure to launder money for international cartels."
My father looked up, his dark eyes locking onto mine.
"I exposed him to the feds. I stripped him of his shares, ousted him from the board, and forced him into exile in Eastern Europe to avoid a life sentence. I thought he would die in the shadows."
"He didn't die," Julian deduced, crossing his arms. "He rebuilt."
"He built a shadow syndicate," my father confirmed grimly. "And he has been waiting three decades to exact his revenge. He saw what you did to the Kensington family, Mariana. He saw Andrew’s public humiliation. Silas didn't just bail Andrew out of prison. He weaponized him. He gave a broken, angry man unlimited resources and pointed him directly at our empire."
I processed the information with cold, clinical precision. "Silas Vanguard wants the Escalante throne. He is using Andrew as a pawn to distract us, to force us into a panic, so he can launch a hostile takeover of our European assets."
"We go on the offensive," Julian stated, his voice a low, vibrating threat. "I will dispatch my extraction teams. We find Andrew, we find Silas, and we bury them."
"No," I said softly, a dark, brilliant plan forming in my mind.
Julian and my father both looked at me.
"If we hunt them in the shadows, we play their game," I smiled, a chilling, absolute expression that made my father’s eyes widen with recognition. I was truly his daughter. "Silas wants a war. But Silas is old money, Papa. He is arrogant. And Andrew is a narcissist who is desperate to prove he is finally a king."
"What is the play, Mariana?" Julian asked, stepping closer to me.
"We invite the vampires inside," I whispered. "We host the annual Escalante-Thorne Winter Gala this Friday at the Plaza. The most public, highly secured event of the year. We make sure the press is there. We make sure every billionaire in the city is there."
"And you think they will show up?" my father asked.
"Andrew won't be able to resist," I promised. "He wants to humiliate me in front of the exact same crowd that watched me destroy him. He will walk right through the front doors, believing Silas’s money makes him untouchable."
May you like
I looked toward the hallway where my son was sleeping.
"We don't hunt them in the dark," I concluded. "We execute them in the light."
Related Stories
