Chapter 59 - The Sister's Broken Bargain
"Anthony," Khloe whispered, her fingers digging into the metal frame of the monitor until her nails cracked. "He... he was in the water. We watched the roof fall."
"The boathouse had an underwater slip," I realized with sick clarity. "He had a dive rig prepared. He let us think he burned so we would lead him straight to Zurich—straight to the secondary vault."
On the monitor, Anthony stopped at the edge of the pier. He tapped the wood with his cane.
Isabella was thrown to her knees in front of him. Her designer silk blouse was torn at the shoulder, exposing pale, shivering skin. Even through the grainy black-and-white feed of the closed-circuit camera, her desperation was palpable. She was weeping, clawing at Anthony’s leather shoes, begging for her life.
"Look at her," Khloe whispered, her voice devoid of emotion. "She gave him our coordinates in exchange for a seat on his plane. She orchestrated the entire raid."
Through the external audio mic mounted on the dock, Anthony’s voice came through the monitor's tinny speaker. The synthesizer we had heard earlier was gone—replaced by his real, rasping, fire-damaged voice.
*"Where is the second child, Isabella?"* Anthony demanded, looking down at her like an insect. *"The boy. The embryo you stole from Zurich before you fled to Geneva."*
Isabella looked up, tears streaming down her soot-streaked face. *"I don't have him! Marcus has the thermal transport case! Khloe has Grace! I gave you their location! You promised me fifty million from the Vance trust! You promised me a new identity in Singapore!"*
Anthony tilted his head, his burned, grafted lips twisting into a horrific semblance of a smile.
*"A sister who sells her sister's blood will sell anyone's,"* Anthony said softly. *"You have no utility to the Vance lineage, Isabella. You never did. You were merely an expensive decoy."*
*"No! Anthony, please! I helped you! I poisoned Marcus's water in the Black Forest! I left the breadcrumbs—"*
Anthony didn't even look at the guard standing to his right. He simply raised two fingers.
The guard stepped forward, drew a silenced tactical pistol, and shot Isabella once through the back of the neck.
She collapsed forward onto the frost of the pier without a sound. Her body twitched once, her fingers clawing weakly at the icy wood, before she lay completely motionless, her blonde hair pooling in a dark, widening halo of blood.
Khloe choked back a sob, clapping both hands over her mouth.
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Whatever hatred, whatever monstrous betrayal had existed between them, Isabella was still her sister. They had shared a childhood. They had shared the same mother. And in three seconds, Anthony Vance had discarded her like a broken tool on a frozen dock.
"Get in the car," I ordered, my voice hard as iron. "Now, Khloe! We don't have a choice!"
