The Billionaire’s Vow

Chapter six

The severed wrist still wore Sophie’s diamond tennis bracelet, the one Natalie had gifted her on her thirtieth birthday. The stones glittered under the warehouse floodlights, grotesquely cheerful against the pale flesh. Blood pooled in the hollow of the Tesla’s hood, dripping onto the asphalt in fat, deliberate drops.

Natalie didn’t scream. She didn’t tremble. She reached out and plucked the bracelet free, the metal cold against her fingers.

*"You should’ve run further, Sophie,"* she murmured, pocketing the jewelry.

Liam emerged from the warehouse, his shirt sleeves rolled up to reveal the scars Natalie had traced with her tongue just last night. His gaze flicked to the bloodied hood.

"That’s not Vivian’s style."

"No,"* Natalie agreed. *"It’s sloppy."

Her phone buzzed again. The encrypted video played on a loop—that shadowed figure dumping a body into the East River. The time stamp taunted her: *The night of her first wedding.*

---

The Safe House smelled of gun oil and jasmine tea.

Natalie spread the contents of Vivian’s safe across the steel table:

- A Glock 19 with a pearl handle

- Deeds to properties in Jakarta and Monaco

- A faded sonogram photo dated eighteen years ago

Liam froze when he saw it. *"That’s—"

*"Not mine,"* Natalie finished. She turned the image over. The handwritten note on the back made her stomach drop:

"For when she’s ready to meet her sister."

The room tilted. Natalie gripped the table’s edge. *"I don’t have a sister."*

Liam’s silence was answer enough.

---

**The Interrogation** took place in a soundproofed room above a Chinatown dumpling shop.

Daniel sat shackled to a chair, his left eye swollen shut. He laughed when Natalie slapped the sonogram onto his lap.

*"You really didn’t know?"* Blood bubbled between his teeth. *"Vivian had twins. She gave one to her brother to raise—insurance policy in case you turned out weak."*

Natalie’s pulse roared in her ears. *"Where is she?"*

*"Closer than you think."* Daniel grinned. *"Ask your fiancé about his year in Rikers."*

Liam moved faster than Natalie had ever seen. His knife pressed into Daniel’s jugular. *"Say another word and I’ll feed you to the harbor rats piece by piece."*

But the damage was done.

---

**The Revelation** came at 3:17 AM, in the back of a stolen ambulance.

Liam drove while Natalie scoured prison records on a hacked tablet.

"You were incarcerated the same month Vivian ‘died’,"* she said, her voice hollow. *"Assault charges. But the victim’s name is redacted."

Rain streaked the windshield. Liam’s knuckles whitened on the wheel.

"It was me,"* he said at last. *"I was the one who ran your mother off the road."

Natalie’s breath caught.

"She paid me to do it."

---

The Trap was set at sunrise.

Natalie stood on the Brooklyn Bridge, the wind whipping her hair like a banner. In her pocket: Sophie’s bracelet. On her finger: Liam’s grandmother’s ring.

She dialed the number from memory.

"Hello, sister."

The woman who answered had Natalie’s voice.

Some bloodlines were meant to be severed.