Chapter 4 - The Sins of the Father.Ethan placed the handgun on a stainless steel table.
He ran a bloodstained hand through his perfectly styled hair, ruining his billionaire facade.
"I am exactly who I said I was," Ethan answered quietly.
"A businessman."
Rosa let out a sharp, bitter laugh.
"Businessmen do not have biometric gun safes hidden in their pianos," she countered.
"Businessmen do not snap the necks of trained mercenaries in their hallways."
Ethan looked at her, the weight of a decade's worth of secrets settling onto his shoulders.
"My family didn't make its fortune in tech," Ethan confessed.
"My father made his money selling black-market weapons to hostile regimes."
Rosa recoiled, her hand instinctively reaching back to shield Lily.
"When I took over the company, I tried to legitimize it," he continued.
"I cut ties with the syndicates, shut down the smuggling routes, and invested in clean technology."
He looked down at his bruised, bleeding knuckles.
"But you don't just walk away from the underworld without making enemies."
"Victoria's father was my biggest remaining liability."
"The marriage was a treaty."
"An alliance to keep his private army from destroying everything I built."
Rosa felt the room spinning.
"And when you vanished four years ago?" she asked, her voice trembling.
"When you stopped returning my calls?"
Ethan's jaw tightened, a flash of pure agony crossing his stoic features.
"They found out I was seeing someone," he whispered.
"They threatened to kill you, Rosa."
He closed the distance between them, stopping just inches away from her.
"I walked away to keep you alive."
"I didn't know about Lily."
"I swear to God, I didn't know."
Rosa stared at the man she had once loved, the man who had broken her heart, the man who was now standing between her and a bullet.
Before she could respond, the security monitors on the wall blared a shrill alarm.
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The feed from the basement cameras flickered to life.
A man in a custom tailored suit stood outside the vault door, holding a block of military-grade C4 explosive.
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