Chapter 9 - Let the Empire Burn
“Stop the bombs,” Adrien said.
Samuel’s laughter faded.
Julian’s voice came through the earpiece.
“You understand what happens if the files are released?”
“Yes.”
“Everything we own could collapse.”
“I said stop the bombs.”
Samuel stared at Adrien.
“You would sacrifice the empire?”
Adrien moved closer.
“For them? Without hesitation.”
Antonio looked at his son with something like pride.
Samuel’s face hardened.
“You don’t deserve the name.”
“Maybe not.”
Adrien glanced at Elena, Celeste, Julian, and the father he had mourned for twelve years.
“But a name is not a family.”
Below the chapel, Noah redirected power through the emergency grid. Sparks burst from the bomb panel. Julian held two severed wires apart while Noah entered a sequence on the tablet.
The timer reached thirty seconds.
“Now!” Noah shouted.
Julian connected the wires.
The chapel lights went black.
The timer stopped at seven seconds.
For one breathless moment, no one moved.
Then every computer in the facility began chiming.
The data release had started.
Files uploaded across encrypted servers, news outlets, federal databases, and anonymous archives. Decades of bribery, surveillance, illegal operations, political influence, and criminal accounts spilled into the world.
The Romano empire was no longer protected by secrecy.
Samuel’s face collapsed.
“No.”
Adrien took the trigger from his weakened hand.
“It’s over.”
“It was mine.”
“It was never yours.”
Samuel reached for a hidden pistol.
Antonio moved first.
Despite his damaged body, he drove the wheelchair into Samuel’s legs. Samuel fell. Adrien seized the weapon and struck him across the face.
Celeste, still tied to the fallen chair, stared at Antonio.
“You knew about me?”
Antonio looked at her.
“Yes.”
“And you wanted my records erased.”
Pain crossed his scarred face.
“I was told you were part of a blackmail attempt. I believed Samuel had created false documents to destroy my marriage. By the time I learned you were real, you had disappeared.”
Celeste’s eyes filled.
“You could have searched.”
“I did.”
“Not hard enough.”
“No,” Antonio said. “Not hard enough.”
There was no excuse in his voice.
Only admission.
Sirens approached in the distance.
Not one vehicle.
Dozens.
The released files had alerted state police, federal agencies, reporters, and every enemy named in the documents.
Lydia entered the chapel with Marcus.
“We have perhaps ten minutes before this place is surrounded.”
Samuel laughed from the floor.
“Do you think they will arrest only me? Adrien’s name is throughout those files. Antonio’s too.”
Adrien looked at his father.
“How much is true?”
Antonio’s eyes lowered.
“Enough.”
For most of his adult life, Adrien had believed power meant controlling every consequence. Now the illusion had vanished.
“We do not run,” he said.
Marcus looked at him.
“That may mean prison.”
“If crimes were committed under my command, I answer for them.”
Samuel sneered.
“You think surrender makes you honorable?”
“No. But it may keep Lucia from growing up in a world where men like us never answer for what we do.”
At Lucia’s name, Celeste looked away.
Adrien crouched and cut her restraints.
She rubbed her wrists but did not try to escape.
“Why did you choose her?” he asked.
“Maria knew about the hidden room. Bell panicked. I ordered him to bring Maria somewhere safe until I could decide what to do.”
“He poisoned her.”
“I didn’t know.”
“And Lucia?”
“When Bell died, Samuel ordered his people to take them. He said the child would force you to cooperate.”
“You still stood beside him.”
Celeste’s face tightened.
“Yes.”
The word cost her.
Adrien looked toward Elena.
His mother did not defend her daughter.
She merely held out her hand.
Celeste stared at it for several seconds before finally taking it.
Federal agents stormed Saint Orison nine minutes later.
Adrien ordered everyone to lower their weapons.
Samuel attempted to bargain before the handcuffs were secured. He offered names, accounts, and political secrets.
The agents told him the files had already provided more than enough.
Lydia was arrested for conspiracy, unlawful detention, and obstruction. Celeste was taken into custody for kidnapping and participation in the network. Antonio was transported to a hospital under armed guard.
Adrien and Julian were arrested as material suspects.
Elena was taken into protective custody.
Maria and Lucia were placed in an ambulance.
Before Adrien was led away, Lucia broke from a paramedic and ran toward him.
An agent tried to stop her, but Adrien raised his cuffed hands.
She wrapped her arms around his legs.
“You came back,” she said.
“I promised.”
Her eyes moved to the handcuffs.
“Are they taking you away?”
“For a while.”
“Because you did something bad?”
Adrien looked at the federal agents, cameras, and shattered remains of his family’s empire.
“Yes.”
Lucia considered this.
“Will you come home after?”
“I don’t know.”
She reached into her pocket and placed the brass shoe keychain from her mother’s cleaning bag into his palm.
“So you don’t forget where home is.”
Adrien closed his fingers around it.
He was placed inside a black federal vehicle.
As the doors shut, his phone—held in an evidence bag beside an agent—began ringing.
The screen displayed an unknown number.
The agent answered on speaker.
May you like
A distorted voice said, “Samuel was never the final Cardinal.”
Then the hospital transporting Antonio exploded on the highway.
