Chapter 1: The Phantom’s Ledger
Chapter 1: The Phantom’s Ledger
The black luxury sedan melted into the midnight traffic of the city. In the backseat, Elena Scalino took a makeup wipe and effortlessly rubbed away the crimson bruise on her right cheek. It had been theatrical greasepaint, carefully applied thirty minutes before the confrontation.
Her chauffeur, Marcus—who was neither just a driver nor working for any "father"—glanced in the rearview mirror. "The Vance family accounts?"
"Drained," Elena replied, opening a sleek silver laptop. "Seventy-five million dollars, untraceable and currently bouncing through offshore shell companies. Julian’s mother thought the red box contained the legendary Romanov diamond. By the time they open it and find the cubic zirconia, we’ll be ghosts."
