Chapter 15 - The Basement of Broken Dreams
The old Castellane family home was a decaying two-story craftsman in the industrial valley where Dorian had grown up.
The windows were boarded with plywood, and the yard was overrun with weeds and discarded tires.
Dorian knelt on the damp concrete floor of the cellar, prying away a rotten piece of pine with a rusty crowbar.
Marcus stood behind him, shining a heavy tactical flashlight down into the hole.
Serafina stood at the top of the wooden stairs, unwilling to dirty the hem of her coat with the dust of Dorian’s past.
"It's here," Dorian called out, his voice hoarse and trembling.
He pulled out a heavy metal lockbox covered in mold and grime.
He fumbled with the key he had kept hidden on his brass keychain between the keys to the rail yard gates.
The lock clicked open.
Inside lay a thick leather binder stamped with the crest of the Obsidian Syndicate.
Beside it were four encrypted flash drives and a handwritten contract signed by Christian Vance and Lady Eleanor Montgomery.
Marcus retrieved the box and carried it up the stairs to Serafina.
She opened the binder under the beam of the flashlight.
Her eyes scanned the names, dates, and wire transfer amounts.
It was all there.
Christian had paid the Montgomery family eighty million dollars to provide Vivienne as a romantic diversion for Dorian.
The contract explicitly outlined the schedule: Dorian was to be seduced, encouraged to demand a divorce, and filed out of the Vance family registry before November twelfth.
November twelfth was tomorrow.
If Serafina had not discovered the truth tonight, Christian’s legal ambush would have closed without resistance.
Dorian crawled up the basement steps on his hands and knees, looking up at Serafina like a condemned prisoner begging for a stay of execution.
"Serafina, please," Dorian wept, tears cutting clean streaks through the dirt on his face.
"I didn't know."
"I swear to God, I thought I was making those choices on my own."
"I thought Vivienne loved me."
"I thought I was finally standing on my own feet without your shadow."
Serafina closed the binder with a firm, resounding snap.
She looked down at the man she had loved for nearly a decade with profound, surgical detachment.
"That was always your greatest flaw, Dorian."
"You believed you were big enough to stand on your own, yet too small to see who was pulling the strings attached to your arms."
"You destroyed our home for a mirage painted by my enemies."
"Marcus, give him five thousand dollars from the petty cash fund."
Dorian choked back a sob.
"I don't want your money! I want my life back!"
"Your life ended the day you chose greed over honor," Serafina said, turning toward the rainy doorway.
"Take the money, Dorian."
May you like
"Buy yourself an extra coat."
"The winter at the rail yard is going to be exceptionally long."
