Chapter 8
Alexander descended the grand staircase with purposeful, heavy strides. The mansion was no longer a place of celebration; it was a fortress bracing for a siege. The warm, luminous lighting felt stark and interrogative as he marched back into the dining room.
Bianca was still sitting at the table, clutching a crystal wine glass with trembling fingers. She had poured herself a massive measure of red wine, trying to drown her panic. As Alexander entered, she jumped, the wine spilling onto her pristine sculpted gown, leaving a stain that looked like fresh blood.
"Alexander," Bianca gasped, standing up rapidly. "Please, tell me you believe me."
"I spoke with Nora," Alexander said, his voice a flat, dead calm that was infinitely more terrifying than a shout. He walked around the table, stopping just inches from her. "She confirmed everything. You were not surprised to see him. You argued, and then you embraced."
Bianca’s face hardened. The desperate, weeping fiancée vanished. Her controlling temperament, cornered and frantic, finally broke through the surface. She slammed her wine glass onto the table, the glass shattering at the stem.
"Fine!" Bianca screamed, her rosy skin flushing a deep, angry crimson. "Yes! I knew he was alive! Is that what you want to hear?"
Alexander did not flinch. "Why?"
"Because he came to me three years ago!" Bianca spat, tears of rage in her eyes. "He was hiding in Europe. He contacted my family. He needed money, Alexander. He needed resources to stay off the grid because he knew that if you found out he was alive, you would finish the job yourself!"
"I loved my brother," Alexander growled, his hands balling into fists, the tattoos stretching taut over his knuckles. "I mourned him."
"You took his empire!" Bianca laughed, a bitter, venomous sound. "You took his territory, his men, and his power! Julian knew that the attempt on his life wasn't a rival family. He knew it was an inside job. He thought you ordered the hit to consolidate your power!"
Alexander’s world tilted on its axis. The sheer magnitude of the lie hit him with the force of a freight train. "I would never touch Julian. Who told him that?"
Bianca smiled, a cruel, twisted expression that revealed the true depth of her treachery. "I did."
Alexander went completely still. The silence in the room returned, heavy and suffocating.
"My family needed the Whitlock syndicate weakened," Bianca confessed, stepping away from him, keeping the large table between them. "We needed you paranoid, fighting ghosts. I convinced Julian you betrayed him so he would stay in exile. And I married you to ensure my family merged with yours, giving us ultimate control."
"You orchestrated the hit," Alexander realized, his deep voice vibrating with absolute, lethal certainty. "You tried to kill my brother."
"It was business, Alexander," Bianca sneered, raising her chin defiantly. "And Julian is an idiot. He came back today thinking he could blackmail me. He wanted his money cut off, or he threatened to expose the truth to you. He gave that ring to Oliver as a warning to me. He wanted me to know my time was up."
"Your time is up," Alexander whispered.
"You can't touch me," Bianca threatened, her voice shaking despite her bravado. "My family has snipers surrounding this estate. If I don't walk out of here tonight, they will breach the walls. We will kill everyone inside, including your precious son and that pretty little maid."
May you like
Alexander looked at her, his perceptive eyes cold and dead. He slowly reached into his jacket and pulled out his phone.
"Let them try," Alexander said.
