👉 Previous decision: The ledger binder was thrown onto the chapel floor as Viktor’s mob converged.
The heavy chapel doors swung inward. Viktor Kostov himself stepped into the room, a formidable presence. He was flanked by seven armed men, their faces grim and unyielding.
Mara and Julian stood at the altar, eyes wide with terror. Cult members whimpered, huddled together in the corners. Ethan stood beside me, his chest heaving, his gaze locked on his fiancée who remained still, propped up against Mara’s control desk.
Viktor raised a hand, stopping his men from shooting. He wasn’t here for a massacre, but for a public execution of truth.
His personal lawyer, a slender man in a sharp suit, stepped forward. He calmly walked to the center of the chapel, picked up Julian’s double-entry binder, and cleared his throat.
“Viktor Kostov,” the lawyer announced, his voice carrying clearly through the tense silence, “has authorized me to read the full account of financial malfeasance by Julian Gable, also known as Julian Cross, and Mara Gable, also known as Sister Mara.”
He began to read, his words cutting through the air like a knife.
“First,” he stated, his finger tracing a line in the ledger, “Sister Mara Gable used $1,400,000.00 of Viktor Kostov’s laundered cash—money meant for legitimate real estate investments—to buy outright deeds to Viktor’s *own* illegal loan-shark properties. Effectively, stealing his assets with his own money.”
A murmur rippled through the mobsters. Viktor’s face was stone.
“Second,” the lawyer continued, “Julian Gable engineered these so-called ‘blood contracts’ not out of religious fanaticism, but purely as sophisticated tax-fraud instruments. He manipulated his sister Mara’s genuine religious zealotry, using the cult as a convenient, tax-exempt front for a vast, illegal money-making operation.”
Mara gasped, her eyes wide as she stared at her brother. Julian flinched, his face paling to a sickly grey.
“And finally,” the lawyer concluded, his voice ringing with a chilling finality, “Leo Kaczmarek’s original Craigslist ad was not a random stroke of luck. Julian Gable specifically targeted Mr. Kaczmarek, selecting him from thousands of applicants, based on his public $180,000.00 bankruptcy filing. You were the perfect mark, Mr. Kaczmarek. Desperate. Vulnerable. Easily bound.”
➡️ Read CHAPTER 17 to continue the story.
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