Chapter 18 - The House of FireThirty seconds.
That was what the tiny screen showed.
Dalia stared at the remote on the marble floor while people screamed around her.
Rowan reached for it.
Dalia grabbed his wrist.
“What if touching it triggers something?”
His eyes met hers.
He hated that she was right.
Nico shouted into his radio. “Bomb team now!”
Massimo was already moving people toward the west exits. Security surrounded reporters, board members, family allies. Serena had Milo in her arms, dragging him behind a column while Bobby stood between them and the chaos, barking at anyone who came too close.
Celia lay on the floor near the staircase, blood on her temple, laughing.
Dalia looked at her in horror.
“You knew,” Dalia whispered.
Celia’s eyes found hers.
“I knew he would never share power.”
Rowan crouched beside the remote, studying it.
Dalia knelt beside him despite the pain in her body.
“Get back,” he ordered.
“No.”
“This is not bravery. It’s stupidity.”
“Then use it. You’re wasting seconds.”
His jaw tightened.
Nico slid across the floor beside them. “Signal device. Could be fake, could be linked.”
“Can you stop it?” Rowan asked.
Nico’s silence was answer enough.
Dalia looked at the remote.
One red button.
One black switch.
Daniel loved control. He loved forcing people to choose. But he also loved watching. If the device was real, he would want the moment recorded. If it was a bluff, he would need fear to do the work.
She looked up.
A small camera blinked inside one of the floral arrangements.
There.
“Daniel’s watching,” she said.
Rowan followed her gaze.
His face changed.
Dalia stood, grabbed the remote, and held it up toward the hidden camera.
Rowan froze. “Dalia.”
She ignored him.
“Daniel!” she shouted. “You want me? Then listen.”
The ballroom quieted in waves.
The red numbers flashed against her palm.
“I know you,” she said. “You won’t blow the archive while I’m standing in the room. You need the baby. You need the claim. You need to prove you were the better son.”
Rowan rose slowly beside her.
Daniel’s voice crackled suddenly through the ballroom speakers.
“You always did learn too quickly.”
Dalia’s breath caught.
Everyone looked upward.
Daniel laughed softly through the speakers. “Put down the remote, sweetheart.”
“No.”
“Dalia.”
“You don’t control my name anymore.”
Daniel’s voice cooled. “You think Rowan cares about you? You are useful because you are pregnant.”
Dalia looked at Rowan.
The entire room seemed to vanish.
Rowan said, loud enough for the microphone hidden nearby to catch, “She was useful when she told the truth. She became under my protection when men threatened her. She became family when you tried to bury her.”
Dalia’s heart stopped.
Family.
Daniel went silent.
Celia stopped laughing.
Dalia looked at the remote again.
“Daniel,” she said, “if the archive burns, Mara burns. Her letters. Her photograph. Her proof that she loved you before everyone poisoned that love.”
Silence.
Serena stepped forward, crying.
“Danny,” she said to the room. “Please. Don’t erase Mom twice.”
Milo’s voice followed, small but clear.
“Don’t.”
For the first time, the speakers carried only breathing.
Daniel’s breathing.
Dalia closed her eyes.
Then the countdown stopped.
At seven.
The red light went black.
A collective gasp moved through the ballroom.
Nico ripped the remote from Dalia’s hand and crushed it beneath his shoe.
Rowan caught Dalia when her knees weakened.
The speakers crackled again.
Daniel’s voice was no longer smooth.
“You think this is mercy?”
Rowan looked toward the hidden camera.
“No,” he said. “I think it’s grief.”
Daniel screamed then.
Not words.
Just rage.
The feed cut.
Nico shouted, “East grounds! He’s near the transmitter!”
Rowan tried to move, but Dalia grabbed his sleeve.
“Don’t chase him angry.”
He looked down at her.
“Chase him smart.”
For one heartbeat, he held her gaze.
Then he nodded.
Massimo took command of the ballroom. Nico led the tactical team east. Rowan went with them, Bobby at his side despite his limp and Dalia’s protests.
Dalia remained with Serena and Milo near the staircase.
Celia stared at her from the floor.
“You should have let it burn,” Celia whispered.
Dalia looked at the old woman.
“No,” she said. “That’s the difference between us.”
Celia’s mouth twisted.
“You think saving memories saves people?”
“No. But destroying them makes monsters.”
Outside, gunfire cracked through the storm.
Serena grabbed Milo.
Dalia turned toward the windows.
Lightning lit the grounds.
May you like
For one split second, she saw Rowan running across the lawn.
And Daniel waiting beneath the trees.
