Chapter 24
CHAPTER 24: THE NEW ARRANGEMENT
By the next morning, we were back in New York, but the city felt different. The illusion of safety was completely shattered. We weren't allowed back into our penthouse; the federal authorities, acting under a sudden, mysterious "national security directive," had cordoned off the building.
We were holed up in a secure, hidden safehouse in Brooklyn—an old brick warehouse converted into a high-tech bunker, owned exclusively by Marcus Vance.
My father sat at a steel table, staring at a blank digital tablet. The Obsidian Protocol document was open on the screen, a web of legal clauses designed to completely strip the Salazar family of our legacy, leaving us as nothing more than well-paid ghosts.
"If I sign this, Valeria, we lose everything your grandfather bled for," Ricardo said, his voice hollow. "The warehouses, the ships, the security teams—they all become assets of a global shadow syndicate. We will be completely at their mercy."
"And if you don't, Sofia dies. The board dies. We die," I said, pacing the room, my hair messy, my blazer discarded. I looked down at Leo, who was playing with a plastic block on the floor. "Arthur Pendelton isn't like Santiago. Santiago wanted to hurt me to soothe his own fragile ego. Arthur doesn't feel anything. To him, we are just lines on a spreadsheet that need to be balanced."
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Marcus walked into the room, his face dark with sweat. "I just tracked the van that took Sofia. It entered a diplomatic compound in Upper Manhattan belonging to a European consulate. We can't touch it. Standard law enforcement won't help us—the NYPD has been told to stand down due to federal jurisdiction."
"Then we don't use standard law enforcement," I said, stopping in front of the table. A dangerous, familiar coldness took over my mind. "Arthur thinks I'm a victim because I was married to a monster. He thinks I'm weak because I hid from my father. He doesn't realize that surviving the Rivas family didn't break me... it taught me how to hunt."
