The Seduction

"Can we beat her?"

"We have to," Silas said. "Because if she gets that license, you don't just lose the case, Elena. You lose your freedom. Forever."

Elena stared out the window at the black SUV in the side mirror. It was close enough that she could see the silhouette of the driver. A woman. Seraphina. She wasn't just following them; she was hunting.

"She'll try to run us off the road," Elena said, her voice strangely calm.

"Not here," Silas said, his eyes flicking between the road and the mirror. "Too many cameras on the bridge. She'll wait until we get to Queens. The side streets."

"Then we don't go to the side streets," Elena said. "We go somewhere public. Somewhere she can't touch us."

"The blackmailer won't meet in public," Silas said. "He's paranoid. He operates out of a storage unit in Long Island City."

"Then we make him come to us."

"How?"

"Money," Elena said. "Everyone has a price. You said he wants fifty thousand? Tell him I'll give him double if he meets us at the police precinct."

Silas glanced at her, impressed. "You don't have double."

"No," Elena said. "But Seraphina thinks I do."

She pulled out her phone. Not the burner. Marcus's phone. The one she had swiped from the table when he was distracted by his own performance.

"What are you doing?" Silas asked.

"I'm sending a text," Elena said. "To the blackmailer. I found his number in Marcus's contacts under 'Pest Control'."

She typed quickly.

*Change of plans. Meet me at the 108th Precinct. Bring the file. Double the price.*

She hit send.

Then she texted Seraphina.

*I know you're following me. Meet me at the storage unit. Let's make a deal.*

"You're splitting them up," Silas realized.

"I'm sending the shark to the empty pool," Elena said. "And I'm sending the bait to the safety of the shore."

"It's risky," Silas said. "If the blackmailer sees the cops, he might bolt."

"He won't see the cops," Elena said. "He'll see you. In the lobby. A lawyer. Safe."

"And where will you be?"

"I'll be waiting for Seraphina," Elena said.

Silas swerved, nearly hitting a taxi. "What? No. You're going to the precinct."

"If I go to the precinct, Seraphina will know I played her," Elena said. "She'll follow the blackmailer. She'll kill him before he can hand over the file."

"So you're going to be the decoy?"

"I'm going to be the distraction," Elena said. "I need to keep her busy long enough for you to get the license."

"She'll kill you, Elena."

"She'll try," Elena said. "But she needs something from me first."

"What?"

"The release forms," Elena said. "For the embryos. Marcus told me. They need my signature to make a new heir. Leo isn't enough. They want a spare."

Silas looked at her. He saw the bruises on her face, the fire in her eyes. He saw a woman who had walked through hell and come out holding a match.

"You're crazy," he said.

"I'm a Hawthorne," Elena said, echoing Eleanor's words. "Or at least, I'm trying to be."

Silas sighed. He pulled the car over at the next exit.

"Get out," he said. "Take a cab to the storage unit. I'll go to the precinct."

Elena opened the door. The cold wind hit her face.

"Silas," she said.

"Yeah?"

"If I don't make it..."

"You'll make it," Silas said. "You're too expensive to die."

Elena smiled grimly. She slammed the door.

She watched Silas drive away, the black SUV peeling off to follow him for a block before realizing the deception. The SUV made a sharp U-turn, tires screeching, heading back toward the highway. Toward the storage unit.

It worked.

Elena hailed a cab. "Long Island City," she told the driver. "And step on it."

The storage facility was a concrete block in the middle of an industrial wasteland. It was dark, deserted, and smelled of rust and cold water.

Elena paid the driver with the last of the cash from Marcus's wallet. She stood by the gate, waiting.

Five minutes later, the black SUV rolled up.

It stopped. The engine cut.

Seraphina got out. She wasn't wearing her wedding dress anymore. She was wearing black leather and heels that looked like weapons.

"You're alone," Seraphina said, looking around. "Brave. Or stupid."

"I'm tired," Elena said. "I want to end this."

"So do I," Seraphina said. "Give me the license."

"I don't have it," Elena said. "Silas has it. He's taking it to the police right now."

Seraphina laughed. "Silas works for us. He always has."

"Not anymore," Elena said. "He works for the winner. And right now, that's not you."

Seraphina's smile faltered. "You think a piece of paper matters? We own the judge, Elena. We own the system."

"You don't own the public," Elena said. "The video is out, Seraphina. The one of you poisoning Marcus. It has a million views."

"Deepfake," Seraphina said, waving a hand. "Fake news. People believe what they want to believe. And they want to believe in the Hawthornes. They want the fairytale."

She stepped closer.

"But you?" she said softly. "You're the villain in this story. The interloper. The thief."

She reached out and touched Elena's cheek. Her fingers were cold.

"Marcus still loves you, you know," she said. "In his own pathetic way. He wants you back."

"He wants my money."

"He wants your compliance," Seraphina corrected. "And your womb."

She leaned in, her perfume heavy and sweet. Vanilla and rot.

"Give us the embryos, Elena. Sign the papers. And we'll let you see Leo on weekends. Supervised, of course."

It was a seduction. A twist of the knife.

Elena looked at her. At the face that mirrored her husband's. The face of the monster who had eaten her life.

"I have a counter-offer," Elena said.

"Oh?"

"You leave," Elena said. "Tonight. You take your money, you take your clothes, and you disappear. You never see Marcus again. You never see Leo again."

Seraphina threw her head back and laughed. "Or what?"

"Or," Elena said, stepping back, "I trigger the bomb."

Seraphina stopped laughing. "What bomb?"

"The one I planted in the storage unit," Elena lied. "Right next to the gas main."

She held up Marcus's phone.

"One text," she said. "And we all go to hell together."

Seraphina stared at her. She looked at the phone. She looked at the storage unit.

She didn't know if it was true.

But she knew Elena was desperate.

"You're bluffing," Seraphina whispered.

"Am I?" Elena asked. "I lost my husband. I lost my son. I have nothing left to lose, Seraphina. Do you?"

Seraphina hesitated. For the first time, doubt flickered in her eyes.

And in that second of hesitation, Elena saw her chance.

She didn't text. She didn't run.

She threw the phone at Seraphina's face.

And then she tackled her.

They hit the frozen pavement hard. Elena was on top, pinning Seraphina down. She wasn't fighting like a lady. She was fighting like a mother.

She slammed Seraphina's head against the asphalt. Once. Twice.

Seraphina went limp.

Elena stood up, gasping for air. She looked down at the woman who had tried to destroy her.

She was unconscious. But she was alive.

Elena checked Seraphina's pockets. Keys. A knife. And a phone.

She took the phone.

She walked to the SUV. She got in.

She locked the doors.

She looked at Seraphina lying in the snow.

She could run her over. She could end it right now.

But that would be murder. And she wasn't a murderer.

She was a Hawthorne.

She put the car in gear.

She drove away, leaving Seraphina in the cold.

She drove toward the city. Toward Silas. Toward the precinct.

But as she crossed the bridge, her phone buzzed.

Silas.

*I have the license. It's real. But Elena... there's something else.*

*What?*

*The witness signature.*

*Who is it?*

*It's not a stranger,* Silas texted. *It's Eleanor.*

Elena stared at the screen.

Eleanor had witnessed the marriage. She had known the whole time.

She wasn't just covering it up.

She had orchestrated it.

Elena lay there, eyes open, staring at the ceiling of the SUV. Plotting.

The matriarch was the head of the snake.

And Elena had just found the axe.