One Screenshot to Burn an Empire Chapter 10

One Screenshot to Burn an Empire Chapter 10

“It’s Seraphina Volkov.”

Sloane enunciated the name clearly over the line.

Seraphina Volkov.

The name was a rusty key, unlocking a long-forgotten box in my memory.

A box filled with sun-drenched, turbulent college days.

Seraphina Volkov. My college classmate.

And a girl who, like me, had once had feelings for Julian.

At the graduation ball, she had worn a blue gown like a princess and confessed her feelings to Julian in front of everyone.

But Julian had taken my hand.

From that day forward, we were no longer friends.

I had assumed it was just a youthful crush, a chapter long since closed and forgotten.

I never imagined that eight years later, her name would reappear in my life like this.

As the mastermind.

“Seraphina is now the wife of the Volkov family’s Don.”

Sloane’s voice pulled me from my chaotic thoughts.

“After she married in, she’s been helping her husband manage their gray-area businesses.”

“The man who sent Cassia the money is her top enforcer.”

“So, from the very beginning, Cassia was her pawn.”

My mind raced, all the pieces clicking into place.

Why Cassia’s resume was so flawless.

Why she was able to so accurately exploit Julian’s soft-heartedness.

Why she chose our anniversary to make her move.

Because Seraphina knew me. And she knew Julian even better.

She knew our history, his character flaws, and exactly what would hurt me

the most.

She didn’t want to steal Julian.

She wanted to destroy us.

To destroy our eight-year relationship, to destroy the empire we had built

from scratch.

This wasn’t a business attack.

This was a premeditated, personal revenge nearly a decade in the making.

“Aurelia, what are you going to do?” Sloane’s voice was tinged with worry.

I watched the city fly by, my gaze turning hard as steel.

“Sloane, package up all the evidence and send it to me.”

“Then, do something else for me.”

“Use an anonymous email and send that evidence, untouched, to the Don of the Volkov family-Seraphina’s husband.”

Sloane paused, then understood.

“You want the Volkov Don to clean his own house? Aurelia, that’s ruthless.”

“She showed no mercy, so she can’t blame me for returning the favor,” I said coldly. “A man who controls a criminal empire will never tolerate his wife using family funds to settle a personal vendetta. Especially not one so foolishly exposed it could have dragged the whole family down with her.”

“Seraphina’s good days are over.”

After hanging up, I glanced at Julian.

He was still lost in his own world of pain, completely unaware of the phone call that had just sealed the fates of several people.

I suddenly felt a flicker of pity.

His self-righteous kindness had become the sharpest weapon in another’s hand, used to stab both himself and me until we were bleeding.

And yet, until the very end, he resented the one person trying to shield him.

The car screeched to a halt at the hospital.

We rushed into the emergency room.

Eleanor was still in surgery. The red light over the operating room door was a glaring wound.

I saw a familiar figure pacing anxiously in the hall.

My father-in-law, Marcus Griffin.

He saw us and rushed over, his wrinkled face a mask of anxiety and rage.

“Julian! You’re finally here! Your mother, she…”

He saw me behind Julian and his words died. His gaze turned to one of pure

disgust.

“What are you doing here!” He pointed a trembling finger at me. “If it weren’t for you, this curse on our family, would Eleanor be in this mess? It’s all your fault! You did this to her!”

“Dad!” Julian cut him off. “This isn’t the time. How’s Mom?”

“How could she be! The doctor said she fell down the stairs, hit her head, she

has several fractures! She’s still in there!”

As Marcus spoke, his eyes turned red.

“This morning she was muttering about going to the estate to find you, to settle the score with that woman! I couldn’t stop her!”

“She said if you chose that woman over Aurelia, she’d kill herself on the estate grounds!”

My heart sank completely.

It was just as I had guessed.

“She went to the estate?” Julian’s voice trembled.

“Yes! And not long after, we got a call. Security found her by the spiral staircase in the underground wine cellar!”

The spiral staircase? The words struck me. “Not in the main house?”

“No!” Marcus said. “The guard said when he found her, she was lying at the bottom of a turn on that secluded staircase in the wine cellar, her head

covered in blood!”

A blueprint of the estate flashed in my mind.

That staircase was in a remote wing. Other than cleaners and security, few people ever used it.

And it was a surveillance blind spot.

Why would Eleanor go there?

If she was looking for Cassia, she should have gone to the Don’s office.

Even if she were stopped, it would have been in the lobby, by the elevators.

Why would she end up falling down a spiral staircase in the underground wine cellar?

It was all too much of a coincidence.

So coincidental it felt designed.

A thought struck me like lightning.

Cassia!

It had to be Cassia.

I immediately pulled out my phone and sent a message to the head of family security.

“Check Cassia Shaw’s whereabouts and all estate entry and exit logs for today. Immediately!”

Just as I sent the message, the doors to the operating room swung open.

A doctor walked out, pulling off his mask, his face weary.

“Who are the patient’s family?”

“We are!” Julian and Marcus rushed forward.

“The patient is out of immediate danger.”

We all breathed a collective sigh of relief.

“However…” the doctor’s tone shifted. “The patient suffered a severe blow to the head. Although the surgery was a success, her brain function has been seriously impaired. And her spine…”

The doctor paused, looking at us with sympathy.

“I’m very sorry. The patient is paralyzed from the waist down. She may never stand again.”