"So you're the boss now," Victor says. "What do we do now?"
Lucian doesn't answer immediately. He stands there, staring down at his father's body, his jaw muscles working as he thinks.
Finally, he looks up.
"We'll tell the world he had a heart attack," Lucian says, his tone cold. "A tragic end to a powerful man."
He looks around the room, his gaze landing on each of us in turn.
"But first, we clean this up," he continues, his voice low and authoritative.
"Victor, get the cleaners. Matei, secure the perimeter. Make sure no one heard anything."
"On it," Victor says, already pulling out his phone.
"Done," Matei replies, his footsteps retreating toward the door.
I pull back slightly, just enough to look up at Adrian's face. His jaw is tight, his dark eyes scanning me like he's checking for injuries.
"Are you hurt?" he asks, his voice rough.
I shake my head.
"No. I'm okay."
He exhales, a long, shaky breath, and then cups my cheek.
"You shouldn't have done that," he says. "You could have been killed."
Adrian stares at me for a long moment, and then he kisses me.
It's gentle and full of everything we can't say out loud.
I brace myself as someone comes into the room, but it's Matei.
"All clear out there," he says, and looks at me, then at Lucian.
Victor gets off the phone and comes over to us, and we all look down at Nicolae.
"Once we bury them, then what?" Victor asks.
Adrian steps forward. "Continue with the plan. Kill Cornel Lupu. Go after the Volkovs, and then put all this behind us, and run this family the way it was meant to be. Make the Ionescu name as strong as it can be. That's what we do."
The brothers all look at one another and nod.
"Okay," Lucian says. "Elena, you can never tell anyone, not a soul, about what happened here."
I nod, wiping my eyes.
"Adrian, take her. We'll deal with this," Victor says.
Adrian looks at me and then nods toward the door. "Let's go."
We leave, and as I do, I take one last look at Nicolae. And even though I have a ton of emotions running through me, seeing the man responsible for the hell I've had to endure dead does bring some twisted peace to my heart. Like waking from a nightmare and pushing away those who caused it.
I'm not sure how I'll process this, but right now, I feel free. I feel justice has been granted, at least what I can hope to get from it.
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