"Blood covered the marble beneath my face when I decided to pretend I couldn't move, and the two women in my mansion reacted in completely different ways. My maid dropped beside me without hesitation while my fiancée stood watching from the staircase for four long seconds, but what Vanessa did next made me realize my fall might not have been an accident at all.

Julian dropped his silver pistol. It clattered loudly against the hardwood floor, echoing in the deafening silence of the room. He stumbled backward, his face turning an ashen, sickly gray as he stared at the brother he thought he had murdered.

“Daniel,” Julian choked out, his voice cracking, his entire body trembling violently. “You... you were in a coma. The doctors said you were braindead.”

“I am a man of many talents, Julian,” Daniel replied smoothly, setting his bourbon glass on the coffee table. He stood up, towering over his younger brother, radiating a dark, lethal authority that sucked all the oxygen out of the room. “Including the ability to hear every treasonous, pathetic word you spoke while standing over my bed.”

Julian’s knees buckled. He fell to the floor, realizing the absolute, inescapable finality of his situation. His mercenaries were gone. His Russian allies were miles away. He was entirely at the mercy of a man who possessed none.

“It was her!” Julian shrieked, pointing a shaking finger at the bound and gagged Vanessa. “She manipulated me, Daniel! She poisoned my mind! She said you were going to ruin the family!”

Vanessa let out a muffled scream of pure outrage through the duct tape, violently thrashing against the heavy zip-ties.

“You are a coward to the very end, brother,” Daniel murmured, stepping forward and looking down at the pathetic usurper. “You sold our territory to the Russians. You planned to execute me. And you couldn't even take responsibility for your own treason.”

“Please, Danny,” Julian wept, reverting to the childhood nickname in a desperate, pathetic attempt to summon mercy. “I’m your blood. You can't kill your own blood.”

“You ceased to be my blood the moment you poured that liquid on the stairs,” Daniel stated, his voice completely devoid of any emotion.

He didn't draw a weapon. He simply nodded to Elias.

Elias stepped forward, grabbing Julian by the collar of his expensive coat, hauling him brutally to his feet.

“Take him to the basement,” Daniel ordered coldly. “Lock him in the cell next to his beloved fiancée. Let them enjoy each other’s company until the Commission arrives tomorrow.”

“No! Daniel, please!” Julian screamed, thrashing wildly as two massive enforcers dragged him kicking and crying out of the living room.

The heavy doors slammed shut, cutting off his pathetic screams.

Daniel stood in the center of the room, running a hand through his dark hair, the adrenaline finally beginning to crash. The immediate threat was neutralized, but the war was far from over.

Grace stepped quietly out from the shadows of the hallway. She had watched the entire confrontation, marveling at the cold, absolute control of the mafia king.