The Panic

She chewed slowly, listening to the monster panic.

"Elena? Are you there? Pick up!" Seraphina's voice was a shriek through the phone's speaker. "I know you did this. I know you froze the accounts!"

Elena took another bite of the sandwich, the cheap white bread and processed ham tasting like victory. She was sitting on the cot in the holding cell, the burner phone hidden under her leg. The guard outside was watching football on his phone, oblivious.

"Why are you doing this?" Seraphina screamed. "You have nothing! You're in jail!"

"I'm in jail," Elena said calmly, swallowing. "But you're in Neiman Marcus, trying to buy a pair of shoes you can't afford."

Silence on the line. Then a gasp.

"How do you know where I am?"

"I get notifications," Elena said. "Every time you swipe that card. Every time it gets declined. It's embarrassing, Seraphina. Really. Trying to buy Louboutins while your empire burns?"

"It's not burning!" Seraphina yelled, her voice cracking. "Julian fixed it! He moved the money!"

"He moved *some* money," Elena corrected. "He moved the Janus fund. But that's not your money, is it? That's the emergency fund. The run money."

"It's my money!"

"Not anymore," Elena said. "Bella has it."

"What?"

"Bella," Elena repeated. "Your daughter. The one you tried to erase. The one you sent to Switzerland. She intercepted the transfer. Fifty million dollars. Gone."

"You're lying. Bella doesn't know how to do that. She's a child."

"She's a Hawthorne," Elena said. "Adaptability is in the blood. Remember?"

Seraphina started to cry. It was a ugly, jagged sound. The sound of a spoiled child realizing the toy store is closed.

"Give it back," she sobbed. "Please. I need it. The lawyers... the press... I need to pay them."

"You can't pay them," Elena said. "Because I just uploaded the rest of the files. The ones I kept back. The ones about the charity."

"What charity?"

"The Orphans Initiative," Elena said. "The one Eleanor just announced. The one you've been using to launder money for the past ten years."

"That's not true!"

"It is true," Elena said. "And now the IRS knows it. And the FBI. And the Times."

She took another bite of her sandwich.

"You're done, Seraphina. You're broke. You're exposed. And you're alone."

"I'm not alone!" Seraphina screamed. "I have Julian! I have Mother!"

"Do you?" Elena asked. "Julian is trying to frame you for the fraud to save himself. And Eleanor? Eleanor just threw you under the bus to the press. She called you 'troubled'. She said you needed 'help'."

"She wouldn't."

"Check the news," Elena said. "Check the ticker."

She could hear Seraphina breathing. Ragged, panicked breaths.

"I'll kill you," Seraphina whispered.

"You can't," Elena said. "I'm already dead. Remember?"

She hung up.

She hid the phone back in her pocket. She leaned her head against the cinderblock wall.

She was tired. So tired. But she couldn't sleep.

Because Bella had the money.

Fifty million dollars.

But Bella was still missing.

The helicopter had taken her. Julian's men had taken her.

So how did she intercept the transfer?

Unless...

Unless she wasn't missing.

Unless she was working with someone.

Elena closed her eyes, trying to piece it together. Kai was in custody. Silas was in the hospital. Who else knew the system? Who else had access?

And then she remembered.

The text.

*You're welcome.*

It wasn't just Bella's style. It was her syntax. The punctuation.

But Bella didn't have the technical skills to hack a crypto wallet.

Someone helped her.

Elena opened her eyes. She looked at the guard.

"Hey," she called out. "I need a lawyer."

The guard ignored her.

"I said I need a lawyer!" she shouted. "It's my constitutional right!"

The guard sighed. He walked over to the bars.

"You already have a lawyer, lady. He's here."

"Who?"

"Some guy named Vane. Says he represents the estate."

Silas.

He was here.

The guard unlocked the cell door. "Come on. Interview room 2."

Elena walked down the hall, her heart pounding. Silas was alive. Silas was here.

She entered the room. Silas was sitting at the table, looking pale but composed. His arm was still in a sling.

"You look terrible," he said.

"You look worse," Elena said, sitting down.

"I heard you made some calls," Silas said.

"I did what I had to do."

"You blew up the family," Silas said. "Literally and metaphorically."

"It was the only way."

"I know," Silas said. He opened his briefcase. He pulled out a tablet.

"Look at this."

He slid the tablet across the table.

It was a live feed. Not from the estate. Not from the bank.

From a yacht.

A superyacht, docked in a harbor that looked suspiciously like Montenegro.

And sitting on the deck, sipping a smoothie, was Bella.

She looked safe. She looked calm.

And sitting next to her, typing on a laptop, was a man.

A man Elena recognized.

Not Julian. Not Kai.

It was the courier. The man from the clinic. The one she had threatened with the fire alarm.

"Who is he?" Elena asked.

"His name is Dante," Silas said. "He's not a courier. He's a mercenary. A cleaner. Seraphina hired him to move the embryos."

"But I stopped him."

"Did you?" Silas asked. "Or did he let you stop him?"

Elena stared at the screen.

"He was working for Bella," she realized.

"He was working for the highest bidder," Silas said. "And Bella outbid everyone."

"With what money?"

"With the trust fund," Silas said. "The one she wasn't supposed to have access to until she was twenty-one. She hacked it, Elena. Months ago. She's been siphoning money for years."

"She played us," Elena whispered.

"She played everyone," Silas corrected. "She let you destroy the family. She let you take the heat. And while everyone was looking at you... she took the cash and ran."

"Where is she?"

"International waters," Silas said. "Untouchable."

"And the embryos?"

"She has them," Silas said. "In the hold. Cryo-storage."

Elena felt a wave of dizziness. Bella had the money. Bella had the embryos. Bella had the power.

"Why?" Elena asked. "Why would she do this?"

"Because she's a Hawthorne," Silas said. "And Hawthornes don't get mad. They get everything."

He took the tablet back.

"But she made a mistake," he said.

"What mistake?"

"She left a trail," Silas said. "A digital breadcrumb. Deliberately."

"For who?"

"For you," Silas said.

He tapped the screen. A message popped up.

*Meet me in Montenegro. Bring Leo. Or I thaw the rest.*