Chapter 11 - The Fall of the Traitor
With the external threats eliminated, only one shadow remained: Nolan Pierce.
Adrian and Emma walked into the secure holding wing of the estate. Nolan sat on a steel cot, disheveled, his expensive suit ruined, his hands shackled to the wall.
When Nolan saw Adrian enter, he spat on the floor.
"You think you won, Adrian?" Nolan rasped, his voice hoarse. "You’re nothing without me! You’re a deaf cripple living in a stone cage! The board won't respect you! The street won't fear you! Without my voice, you are nothing!"
Adrian walked over to the cot. He didn't look angry. He looked at Nolan with the profound disappointment of an older brother who had watched a younger sibling poison themselves.
Adrian raised his hands and signed:
I took you in when your father died. I paid for your education at Harvard. I trusted you with my family's legacy. But your greed made you deaf to honor.
Nolan looked away, his jaw trembling.
Adrian signed:
Your bank accounts in Zurich, the Cayman Islands, and Singapore have been liquidated and donated to the Chicago Children’s Oncology Foundation—in memory of Lily Brooks.
Nolan gasped, his eyes bulging. "No! That's my money! That's forty million dollars!"
Adrian didn't watch him scream. He signed his final command:
You will spend the rest of your life in a maximum-security federal facility for treason and attempted murder. You wanted to make me silent. Now, you will spend your life screaming in a cell where no one will ever care to listen.
May you like
Adrian turned his back on Nolan and walked out of the room.
Emma followed him into the corridor, hearing the heavy steel doors lock behind them with finality. The poison had been drawn from the Voss empire. The silence was no longer a cage; it was clean, clear, and full of light.
