Chapter 18
CHAPTER 18: THE BLOOD SACRIFICE
"Take me," I said, stepping forward, my hands raised. "You want a life for a life? Kill me. Let Santiago shoot me right here. Just lower the crane. Let my father take the boy."
Santiago laughed, a high, unstable sound that echoed off the metal walls. "Oh, no. Death is too easy for you, Valeria. I want you to watch. I want you to feel what it’s like to have your entire world wiped out in a single second, just like you did to me on that marble floor!"
He turned toward Isabella. "Lower the crane, Auntie. Let’s finish this."
Isabella looked at me, her eyes assessing me like a piece of faulty machinery. "She has the Salazar blood, Santiago. If she dies, the empire passes to the child, and the trustees will fight us forever. But if the child dies... she will sign over everything to stop the pain."
The cold, calculated cruelty of it struck me like a physical blow. They weren't just avenging Julian. They were using my son as the ultimate leverage to reclaim their global empire.
"I’ll sign it," I choked out, pulling a folded legal document from my pocket—a total, unconditional transfer of all Grupo Salazar assets to an offshore entity under Isabella's name. "Look! It's right here. Witnessed and notarized before I left New York. Just lower the boy!"
Santiago stepped forward, snatching the paper from my hand. He scanned it, his eyes lighting up with manic greed. "It’s all here. Every single cent. We’re back, Isabella. We’re kings again."
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"Good," Isabella nodded, her finger resting on the detonator. "Now... kill her."
Santiago smiled, raising the barrel of the gun directly to my forehead. "Goodbye, Valeria. Thank you for the inheritance."
