Chapter 5 - Confrontation on the Marble
Marcus Vance felt the air leave his lungs. He stepped forward, his knuckles white as he gripped his champagne flute so hard the glass cracked.
"This is an outrage!" Marcus bellowed, his voice echoing off the high ceilings. "Security! Remove these intruders immediately! Dante Serrano is a known cartel boss, and this... this woman is an imposter!"
Dante didn't reach for a weapon. He simply stepped aside, allowing Lyra to take center stage.
"Hello, Uncle," Lyra said. Her voice carried effortlessly across the silent ballroom.
"You're dead!" Marcus sneered, his composure slipping into unhinged rage. "You died in the Atlantic eight years ago! You're a fraud hired by Serrano to destabilize my company's stock!"
"I spent eight years in the dark because of you, Marcus," Lyra said, taking three slow steps toward him. "I slept on steam vents while you drank my father’s wine. I wore rags while you wore his titles. But while I was in the dark, I remembered everything."
Viktor Reznikov stepped beside Marcus, his eyes narrowed as he assessed the situation. "Marcus... what is the meaning of this? Who is she?"
"She's nobody!" Marcus barked, turning frantically to his security detail. "Shoot them! I don't care about the press! Kill them both!"
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Before the security team could draw their sidearms, the grand screen behind the main stage flickered. The promotional video of Vance Global’s shipping fleet vanished, replaced by a dark terminal screen scrolling with green lines of encrypted data.
At the top of the screen, in bold red letters, appeared the words: VANCE GLOBAL MASTER LEDGER - UNLOCKED BY AUTHORIZED USER: LYRA VANCE.
