My husband’s mistress locked me inside a hospital room, beat me while I was thirty-three weeks pregnant, and tried to force me to surrender my marriage, my company, and my unborn child. She thought my father was a harmless mechanic—until one phone call revealed he was the most powerful anonymous mafia boss in the world. / Chapter 18 / 40

Chapter 18 - The True Mastermind|

While Silas’s empire collapsed like a house of cards, Amara Vale dropped another bombshell file onto my desk.

“We’ve secured Theo Bell’s full testimony,” Amara stated grimly. “And it confirms what we feared. Silas Vance was just a puppet.”

I leaned forward.

“A puppet for who?”

“The Apex Group isn't just an international defense syndicate,” Amara explained, pulling up a classified organizational chart. “It is owned by a single shadow billionaire named Victor Kade.”

My eyes widened as the connection clicked instantly.

“Kade Capital,” I breathed. “The shell company was named after him!”

“Precisely,” Amara nodded. “Victor Kade is a disgraced former arms dealer who operates out of non-extradition territories in Eastern Europe. He wanted Vance Dynamics’ encryption suite so he could sell a master back-door key to rogue states and terrorist organizations.”

Marcus’s expression hardened into absolute stone at the mention of Victor Kade’s name.

I noticed my father’s hands clenching into tight, white-knuckled fists.

“Dad?” I asked, noticing his sudden change in demeanor. “Do you know Victor Kade?”

Marcus stood up slowly, looking out the floor-to-ceiling glass window of the 50th-floor office, staring down at the city skyline.

“Victor Kade was my primary rival thirty years ago, Mara,” Marcus revealed in a voice so dark it sent shivers down my spine. “He is the man responsible for the car bombing that almost killed your mother when you were two years old.”

I gasped, horror washing over me.

“That bombing was the reason your mother and I retired,” Marcus continued softly, his voice trembling with decades of suppressed pain. “I made a deal with the international coalition to disappear in exchange for Kade being forced into exile. But he couldn't leave my family alone.”

“Kade deliberately targeted Silas,” I realized, the full, horrifying picture finally complete. “He knew Silas was ambitious and weak. He used Silas to get to me—to get revenge on you!”

Marcus turned away from the window, his eyes blazing with a ancient, lethal fire.