Chapter 5: The Retired Accountant
Chapter 5: The Retired Accountant
I slowly rose to my feet. The pain in my back was excruciating, but the adrenaline surging through my veins masked it. I stood tall, the blood dripping down my spine a testament to my survival, not my defeat.
"I didn't destroy your empire," I said, my voice finally finding its strength. "You destroyed it yourself."
An explosive boom echoed through the foyer as the front doors were breached and blown off their hinges. Dozens of heavily armed federal investigators, tactical SWAT units, and financial-crimes agents flooded the grand hall. Laser sights cut through the dust, pinning Nathan and a screaming Celeste in their tracks.
From the center of the tactical formation, a man walked forward. He wore a simple, impeccably tailored charcoal suit. His face was weathered, his eyes colder than absolute zero. It was my father.
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Nathan stared, his jaw slack. He had mocked my father at our wedding, calling him a "retired accountant," a nobody. He hadn't realized that Elias Vale was the founder and shadow director of the Vanguard Group—the world's most terrifyingly efficient financial intelligence and private security network. My father looked at Nathan, then down at the bloody whip, and finally at me.
"Take him," Elias ordered quietly.
