Chapter 6 - The Fall of the House of Cards
Victory, in the syndicate world, was never a peaceful transition; it was a brutal, systematic dismantling of the losers.
Within forty-eight hours of the council’s unanimous vote, Nikolai moved with terrifying efficiency. Julian was stripped of his corporate titles within the family’s real estate holdings, cut off from his trust funds, and banished from the downtown operations. Stripped of his wealth and his status, Julian quickly discovered that the high-society friends who had toasted him at his engagement party wouldn't even return his phone calls.
As for Serena and my parents, the fallout was equally swift. My father’s failing business enterprises—which had secretly been propped up by Moretti subsidiary loans for years—suddenly found their lines of credit revoked. The bank notices stacked beneath our old register on Fourth Street were nothing compared to the foreclosure notices now plastered across my parents’ suburban estate.
It was a rainy Thursday evening when my mother finally broke.
I was standing in the master suite of the Moretti penthouse, reviewing charity gala guest lists with my personal assistant, when my private cell phone rang.
It was an unknown number, but I answered it anyway.
“Evelyn? Please... please, you have to help us,” my mother’s voice sobbed through the receiver. The arrogant, icy matriarch was entirely gone, replaced by a desperate, broken woman. “The bank is taking the house. Your father had a minor heart attack this morning, and Julian... Julian packed his bags and left Serena stranded in a cheap downtown apartment with no money. We have nothing, Evelyn. Please... talk to Nikolai. Ask him to show mercy.”
I stared out the floor-to-ceiling glass window, watching the rain streak across the Chicago skyline.
“You told me not to embarrass the family,” I said quietly, my voice entirely devoid of emotion. “You told me to smile while my life was being torn apart. You traded me away like a broken asset.”
“We’re your family!” she wept hysterically.
“No,” I corrected gently. “You were a business arrangement that went bankrupt. You made your bed, Mother. Now lie in it.”
I hung up the phone, sliding it across the marble table.
A moment later, strong arms wrapped around my waist from behind, and Nikolai’s chin settled comfortably on my shoulder.
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“Everything alright?” he murmured, his breath warm against my neck.
“Everything is perfect,” I whispered, leaning back into his solid, unyielding chest.
