Chapter 10 - The Yacht Beneath the BridgeFireboats surrounded the yacht.
The upper deck burned, but the hull remained afloat. Coast Guard teams could not enter the central cabin because someone had rigged the doors to a fuel-release system.
Gabriel called Evelyn by video.
His face appeared through smoke.
Mateo sat restrained behind him. Blood marked one temple.
Celeste stood near the cabin door holding a pistol.
“You told me Celeste betrayed you,” Evelyn said.
“She did.”
Celeste smiled.
“Gabriel still hasn’t understood that he was never running this auction.”
Vale International’s surviving directors were not aboard.
The yacht was a decoy.
Celeste had used Gabriel’s planned sting to gather the original painting, Mateo, and every known copy of the child list in one place.
The real buyers watched remotely.
“Why keep the yacht burning?” Ruiz asked.
Celeste looked toward the camera.
“Insurance.”
Even her escape plan repeated the Vale method.
Destroy the location.
Claim the contents were lost.
Reintroduce the art elsewhere.
Gabriel ordered Evelyn to bring the linen list from The Mourning Girl.
She refused.
“Then Mateo dies.”
Ruiz stepped toward the phone.
“You spent twenty-two years hiding my father and still brought him onto that boat.”
Mateo raised his head.
“Daniel, do not trade the list.”
Gabriel tightened the restraint.
“We can recreate the list after Vale falls.”
Mateo laughed weakly.
“Gabriel always believes people are replaceable if records survive.”
The accusation struck deeper because it was true.
Evelyn asked Celeste what she wanted.
“My name restored as the primary Weiss heir.”
“You tried to kill me.”
“Gabriel created Elise to replace both of us. You think you were the only woman he reduced to a bloodline?”
Celeste grew up inside Vale believing her worth depended on inheriting the claim. When Gabriel discovered Evelyn’s stronger line, Vale’s directors ordered Celeste to infiltrate her household.
Julian’s affair began as an assignment.
Celeste said it later became real.
Again, love appeared inside manipulation without redeeming it.
Evelyn offered Celeste a different path.
“Release them and testify.”
“You think courts return stolen history?”
“No. I think you stop creating new victims.”
Celeste looked toward the burning windows.
For a moment, she hesitated.
Gabriel used the distraction.
He struck her wrist.
The gun discharged.
The video fell sideways.
Ruiz heard shouting, breaking glass, and Mateo’s voice.
Then the feed ended.
Fire crews breached the rear cabin.
They recovered Mateo alive.
Celeste had escaped through a maintenance boat.
Gabriel was missing.
The original Mourning Girl was gone.
Inside the cabin, investigators found a bloodstained coat and a sealed waterproof ledger.
The ledger named hundreds of Vale clients.
It also contained a contract appointing Gabriel Mercer as Vale International’s secret director.
Miriam examined the signature.
It was genuine.
Gabriel had not merely infiltrated Vale.
For twelve years, he controlled part of it.
Isabel stared at the document.
“He told me he remained inside to destroy them.”
“Maybe he did,” Evelyn said.
“Or maybe he decided controlling the network was easier than ending it.”
Mateo regained consciousness aboard the rescue vessel.
His first words to Ruiz were:
“Gabriel took Celeste’s escape boat.”
“He escaped with her?”
“No. He took Elise.”
Ruiz looked toward the hotel feed.
Elise remained beside Evelyn.
Mateo shook his head.
“Not that Elise.”
Vale had created another child using the same genetic material.
A second daughter.
A second replacement heir.
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The scorched case, the townhouse, and the yacht had exposed only one branch of the operation.
👉 Gabriel escaped with another child genetically identical to Elise, proving the network had manufactured multiple heirs from Evelyn’s stolen identity.
