Isabelle POV
I stayed in the back of the library where the old books were. The shelves were covered in dust, like nobody had touched them in decades, when Dmitri's text came in. Everything went quiet the moment I saw his message.
I stared at the text on my screen, barely breathing. I couldn't believe what I was seeing. Just when I thought the fight was almost over, we had smaller problems to deal with.
Dmitri: Where are you? We need to talk. Now. Seraphina has been released. She claimed you were both victims of a kidnapping plot. The men caught with her also testified that they were the kidnappers.
This is insane. How could they possibly believe that obvious lie? And moreover, they didn't even ask for my side of the story to confirm if she's telling the truth or not.
Now that she's back, she will try to push the engagement thinking it will erase everything.
Across the room, the TV in the common area was on.
The news ticker crawled across the bottom of the screen, talking about the stock market and some boring political story.
Then the screen flickered. For a second the picture glitched. Then everything turned bright red.
BREAKING NEWS.
The camera cut to a glass building downtown. A bunch of federal agents were dragging a man out the front doors.
Expensive suit. Perfect hair. The kind of guy who probably charged five hundred dollars just to answer the phone. He tried to cover his face with a leather briefcase, but the text on the screen made it clear he was screwed.
The caption at the bottom said everything.
Marcus Thorne, Senior Partner at Thorne & Locke, is in Federal Custody. Charges started scrolling under his name. Conspiracy. Fraud. Money laundering.
I felt a nasty little jolt of satisfaction. I leaned back in the chair. Marcus Thorne. The brilliant lawyer. His signature had been on every document that erased my family from existence.
"One domino down."
The voice beside me made the chair vibrate slightly. Dmitri dropped into the seat next to mine.
His eyes were glued to the screen, watching the news like he was studying it.
"Thorne's a numbers guy," Dmitri said after a moment.
His voice was flat.
"He likes his beach house more than he likes his clients. He's not going to play the hero. He's going to give them a map to every grave they dug just to stay out of a cell. No way he keeps quiet to protect my father."
I glanced at him.
"It's actually happening," I whispered. "They can't spin their way out of this."
"They'll try. But after this and Seraphina's crazy kidnapping story," Dmitri said. "Every Fed in the city will have them on their list."
On the screen, agents carried cardboard boxes out of the building. Files. Evidence. Years of it.
Part of me still expected the whole thing to vanish somehow. Like the powerful people would just… make it go away.
Of course they would.
"By the time they stand on that stage tonight, they won't be celebrating a merger. They'll be standing in a pile of rubble. We just have to stay upright for a few more hours."
He leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees. The room stayed quiet for a moment. On the screen, Thorne stumbled getting into the car. One of the agents shoved him down harder.
I felt a chill run down my spine. Paper victories were nice. But people like Viktor Volkov and Seraphina wouldn't go quietly. When people like him got cornered, they broke whatever they could reach.
Dmitri POV
Seeing Thorne arrested felt good. But it wasn't the end. My father didn't build his empire on one lawyer. Thorne was just another shield.
Right now Viktor was probably sitting in his office, completely calm, already deciding which piece to sacrifice next. That's how he played the game.
I looked at Isabelle. She was staring at the screen, but her fingers kept tapping against the violin case resting against her leg. Her brain was already moving ten steps ahead. Trying to predict the next move.
Part of me wanted to grab her hand and tell her we could leave. Just walk away. Let the federal agents finish the job. Disappear somewhere far from this mess. But that fantasy lasted about two seconds.
If we walked away now, we'd just be giving them a clean shot at our backs.
"Stay with Adrien today," I said quietly. Too many ears in this place.
"My father being quiet is a bad sign."
She looked at me.
"What do you mean?"
"It means he's done with lawyers."
I stood up slowly.
"He'll start using leverage. He'll find whatever you love and he'll snap it in half right in front of you."
Her expression hardened.
"I'm not scared of him." Her voice was solid, but it sounded thin. Like she was trying to convince herself. That's what worried me. She liked to dare the monster to bite.
"You should be," I said. "Desperate men stop following rules. Keep those documents Julien gave you safe."
I headed toward the door, already running through the security layout in my head. The Great Hall. The entrances. Who I could trust to keep watch.
Then a sharp noise cut through the silence. High-pitched. Urgent. Like an emergency alert. I turned around. Isabelle was staring at her phone.
Isabelle POV
The sound made my stomach drop. We only used that alert for emergencies. I pulled the phone out. The screen stayed black for a second.
Then a video file appeared. No sender. No message. Just the file. I tapped it. The video started. The camera shook a little. Concrete walls filled the frame. It took me a moment to recognize the place.
The Valois bunker. Our bunker. Except it looked… wrong. Empty. Everything was gone. No furniture. No equipment. Nothing. Just a single wooden chair sitting in the center of the room.
Something rested on the chair. My mother's brooch. The last time I saw it was when Dmitri took it away from me. Seeing it there made my chest tighten. Like someone had dug up my mother's grave just to show me the bones.
A hand entered the frame. Large. Veins visible under the skin. A gold signet ring on the finger. I knew that ring. I'd seen it somewhere. The hand picked up the pin and held it closer to the camera.
Then the fingers slowly closed. I didn't hear the sound, but I felt it. The gold twisted. The ruby feathers collapsed inward. By the time the hand opened again, the phoenix was twisted metal. Ruined. The screen went black. White text appeared.
'The first arrest is a gift.'
The words stayed there for a second. Then another line appeared.
'The second will be a funeral.'
My throat went dry. More text.
'Walk onto that stage tonight and the boy dies first. Sign the recantation or watch the Volkov heir join your parents in the dark.'
My grip tightened on the phone. The video ended. I looked up slowly. Dmitri was watching me. His expression had gone sharp as he stepped toward me.
"Isabelle." His voice was low. "What was that?"
He reached for the phone.
"Let me see."
I pulled it back. I couldn't show him. I just couldn't. If Dmitri saw that video, he'd go straight to his father. If I showed him, he'd go straight to his father's office and try to be a hero. He'd dare Viktor to do it. It's exactly what his dad wanted. This wasn't a threat for Dmitri, it was a leash for me. And the leash was him.
"It was nothing," I said quickly. The lie sounded terrible. Even to me.
"Just a glitch." I shoved the phone into my bag.
"Adrien is probably messing with the system."
Dmitri didn't look convinced.
"It's fine," I added. I stood up too fast. My legs felt unsteady.
"We should go."
"Go where?"
"The ceremony."
I forced a smile.
"I still need to get ready."
Every step toward the door felt heavy. I had the evidence to destroy them. But they had something stronger. The power to kill the only person who still mattered to me. The trap was already set. And tonight I was supposed to walk straight into it.
For the first time since this whole war started…
I wasn't sure if the truth was a weapon. Or just a really slow way to die.