Chapter 15: The Ringing Phone
Chapter 15: The Ringing Phone
I returned to Blackthorn Manor the next morning, the exhaustion finally pulling at my bones. The estate was eerily quiet. Nathan was gone—swallowed by the underworld, protected by ghosts who were vastly more dangerous than a corporate tycoon.
I walked into the grand hall, standing exactly where I had bled weeks prior. I looked at the floor, expecting to feel fear, but I only felt a cold, simmering rage. The war wasn't over. It had just evolved.
Suddenly, the silence was shattered.
My phone, resting on the marble table where Nathan had thrown it that fateful night, began to ring. It vibrated violently against the stone. The caller ID flashed: UNKNOWN.
I walked over, my father stepping into the room behind me, his hand resting on the grip of his pistol. I picked up the device and pressed it to my ear.
"Hello?" I said softly.
The voice on the other end was distorted, mechanical, yet dripping with a venom that made the hair on my arms stand up.
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"You did well taking down our pawn, little girl," the voice whispered. "But you owe us three hundred million dollars. And we always collect our debts. Look out your window."
I turned toward the massive bay windows of the grand hall. On the ridge, a mile away, a single red flare shot into the morning sky. The real game had just begun.
