Kelly sat alone in the back seat of the moving car, fingers clenched around the burner phone. The city lights blurred past the tinted windows, each street feeling farther from the life she once believed was hers.
She reread the message for the tenth time.
JANE SMITH: You want immunity? Earn it.
Her throat tightened.
For years, Kelly had lived as a weapon-sharpened, aimed, and used by Don Pedro. Now, the blade was pointed back at her.
"Stop here," she told the driver suddenly.
The car slowed near a quiet bridge. Kelly stepped out, cold air slapping her face. She needed to think.
Confess and die.
Stay silent and die anyway.
The choice wasn't a choice at all.
She typed.
KELLY: I was part of it. The marriage. The frame-up. The poison.
The reply came almost instantly.
JANE SMITH: Details.
Kelly closed her eyes.
---
Across town, Don Pedro was already moving.
"Shut down the secondary accounts," he ordered. "Burn the backups."
"What about Kelly?" a voice asked.
Don Pedro's eyes hardened. "She's a liability."
---
Aham listened as Jane Smith read Kelly's first recorded statement.
"She admits everything," Jane said. "But words alone won't save her."
Aham's jaw tightened.
"She nearly killed me."
"I know," Jane replied. "But she's the rope around Don Pedro's neck."
Clara folded her arms. "And rope burns everyone who touches it."
---
Kelly spoke for hours.
She told them how Don Pedro approached her as a teenager, how he molded her loyalty with money and fear. How he promised love, then replaced it with orders.
"He said Aham was weak," Kelly said, voice shaking. "That he didn't deserve his parents' empire."
Aham listened from the next room, knuckles white.
She confessed how the evidence was planted. How judges were bribed. How the poison was sourced.
When she finished, silence hung heavy.
Jane finally spoke. "You've started something you can't undo."
Kelly nodded. "I know."
---
That night, Don Pedro struck back.
A fire erupted in one of Aham's dormant warehouses-officially ruled an accident. Unofficially, a message.
Aham stood at the scene, flames reflecting in his eyes.
"He's escalating," Clara said.
"Good," Aham replied. "So are we."
---
Kelly didn't make it back to her motel.
Halfway through the night, the car transporting her swerved violently. Tires screamed. A black van boxed them in.
Gunshots shattered glass.
The driver slumped.
Kelly screamed as hands dragged her from the wreck.
A hood dropped over her head.
---
Don Pedro poured himself another drink as his phone buzzed.
STATUS?
A reply came seconds later.
SECURED.
He smiled thinly.
---
In a dim warehouse, Kelly was thrown to the floor.
Don Pedro stepped into view.
"I gave you everything," he said softly. "And you chose betrayal."
Kelly lifted her head, blood at her lip.
"You chose my parents' deaths," she spat. "I was just following."
His expression darkened.
"You will finish what you started."
---
At the same time, Jane Smith received an emergency alert.
"Kelly's been taken," Clara said sharply.
Aham's fists clenched.
"Then this stops being quiet," he said.
Jane's eyes hardened. "Agreed."
---
The chapter ends with Don Pedro standing over Kelly, knife in hand-not to kill her, but to remind her who he believes controls the blade.
But elsewhere, warrants were being drafted.
And Don Pedro didn't know it yet-
But time had finally turned against him.
---