Chapter 25: The Collapse
The fallout was immediate and violent.
By dawn, Leontis Enterprises was trending across every major platform. #LeontisExposed. #EmpireOfLies. Every sordid detail—illegal arms deals, political bribery, offshore laundering—spilled into public view like poison into a river.
Board members resigned in waves. Partners backed out. Stock prices plummeted.
But the man at the center of it all… remained.
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Lucien's Father Strikes Back
Lucien watched the news with hollow eyes. "He's still in control."
Elara looked up from the tablet. "For now. But his armor is cracked."
As if summoned by their words, a secure message pinged Lucien's private channel.
FROM: ANTON LEONTIS
SUBJECT: WE NEED TO TALK.
ATTACHED: A PHOTO—Elara's mother, bound and unconscious.
Lucien's blood turned to ice.
Elara saw it too—and the scream that tore from her throat shattered the room's silence.
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The Final Bargain
They met in an abandoned cathedral, marble and ash beneath a dying sunset. Anton Leontis stood at the altar like a twisted god, flanked by armed men. Behind him, Elara's mother knelt, bruised but breathing.
"You always were sentimental, Lucien," Anton said. "It's your weakness."
Lucien kept his hands raised, unarmed. "Let her go. This is between us."
Anton smiled coldly. "You ruined me. My legacy. My empire. But I'll give you one chance. Hand over the original drive—and the girl walks free."
Elara stood beside Lucien, chin raised. "You'll kill us anyway."
"Probably," Anton agreed. "But I admire your defiance."
Lucien slowly removed a flash drive from his coat. "You want this?"
He tossed it into the air.
Gunshots cracked.
Elara's scream was drowned by chaos. Smoke. Shouting.
But when the dust cleared—
Anton Leontis lay on the cathedral steps, blood seeping into stone. Shot clean through the chest. By his own man—one of Nikolai's agents, planted long ago.
Lucien rushed to Elara's mother, cutting her bonds. "She's breathing. Pulse is strong."
Rachel's voice came through the comms. "World just saw Anton's execution. It's over."
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After the Ashes
Days passed.
With Anton dead and the Leontis empire dismantled, investigations swallowed the corrupt foundation. Lucien stepped forward—not to reclaim his father's seat, but to dismantle what remained.
He testified. Confessed. Bared everything to the world.
Elara watched from the courthouse steps as he exited, shoulders heavy, eyes clear.
"You did it," she said.
Lucien shook his head. "We did."
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A New Beginning
Months later, the press had moved on. Scandals faded. Truth echoed.
Elara opened her café-bookstore in Brooklyn—her long-forgotten dream reborn. No contracts. No secrets. Just stories, coffee, and sunlight.
Lucien arrived one morning, holding a small velvet box.
"No legalities. No obligations," he said, kneeling. "Just this. Me, asking the woman who saved me… to be the rest of my life."
Tears shimmered in her eyes. "You don't have to ask."
She slipped the ring on herself.
And the past—bloody, broken, brutal—finally let them go.
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End of Book One.