Page 151 of The Hunter's Empire

I remember falling asleep while he read beside my bed after another impossibly long day of work. My mother died giving birth to me, leaving him to become both parents without ever making me feel like I was missing one. No matter how demanding his responsibilities became, he always found time for me.

Looking back now, I realize how exhausted he often was, but I never once heard him complain. He used to tell me that none of it mattered because one day we'd leave everything behind. We'd disappear somewhere quiet, somewhere the Valenti name meant nothing, and he'd finally get to be just my father instead of everyone else's problem solver.

The television pulls me back to the present as Marcus signs the contract with my father's pen. A cold anger settles deep inside my chest. That pen is proof. Not that my father died. I already know that. It's proof that Marcus lied.

For years, Marcus fed me the same lie. He told me my father had been murdered by a rival organization and that honoring his memory meant finishing the war they had started. I believed him. I was a grieving child desperate for answers, and Marcus gave me one.

It wasn't until after his death, when I began digging through everything he'd left behind, that the truth emerged. My father hadn't been killed by our enemies. He'd been murdered because he wanted to leave.

Marcus refused to lose the man who had helped build the Krogen Empire, so he had him eliminated instead. The realization changed everything. He hadn't just stolen my father. He had stolen my grief and turned it into a weapon.

Every mission, every order, every drop of blood I spilled had been built on his lie. And by the time I uncovered the truth, Marcus was already gone, leaving behind only his empire... an empire that now belonged to Zora.

I swore that if I couldn't destroy Marcus himself, I would destroy everything he left behind. His empire. His fortune. His legacy.That promise became the foundation of my life. Every mission, every identity, every sacrifice served a single purpose.

Marcus had escaped my revenge by dying before I uncovered the truth, but his empire hadn't. I convinced myself that destroying everything bearing his name would be enough.

Then Zora entered my life.

I close my eyes, but the memories come anyway. Ireland. The island. The cave. I remember the way she refused to break, even when every instinct should have told her to give up. I remember her challenging me without fear, trusting her own convictions long before she had any reason to trust me.

Most of all, I remember watching her fight to survive on that island and realizing, far too late, that I had stopped keeping her alive for the mission alone. Somewhere along the way, without meaning to, I had started caring whether she lived or died.

Elysian Haven only made everything worse. Watching Zora with her family during the wedding, laughing without the weight of the empire on her shoulders, shattered the image I'd spent months building in my mind.

I had expected Marcus's daughter to be cold, entitled, and ruthless. Instead, I found a woman trying to carry responsibilities she never chose. And then there was me crossing that line with her which changed something I still can't put into words. It blurred boundaries I'd spent years drawing and turned a mission I'd always approached with certainty into something far more dangerous. Somewhere between all of these, she stopped being the daughter of the man I hated and simply became... Zora.

That's the part I can't reconcile. She had nothing to do with my father's murder. She was as much a victim of Marcus's lies as I was. Every rational part of me knows that. But revenge has never been rational. If I destroy the Krogen legacy, I destroy her life with it. If I don't, then what becomes of the promise I made to my dead father?

I rise from the chair and switch off the television, letting silence settle over the room. The familiar words echo through my mind, the same ones I've repeated for months. Marcus Krogen murdered my father. He built his empire on betrayal. My revenge has always been bigger than my feelings. It has to be. Because if I lose sight of that now, then everything I've sacrificed to get here has been for nothing.

Chapter 33

Zora

The evening of my coronation finally arrives. From the top of the grand staircase, I look out over the ballroom as hundreds of guests fill the estate below. Every detail has been planned to perfection, creating exactly the kind of event my dad would've hosted.

As I begin my descent, the room's attention gradually settles on me. Every greeting and every watchful glance serves as the same reminder. Tonight, these people aren't simply welcoming me as Marcus Krogen's daughter. They're deciding whether I'm worthy of leading the empire he left behind.

The first guests approach before I even reach the ballroom floor. An elderly diplomat I vaguely remember meeting years ago offers me a warm smile as he extends his hand.

"Congratulations, Miss Krogen. It feels like only yesterday your father was introducing you to everyone at one of these gatherings. You were barely tall enough to see over the banquet tables."

A quiet laugh escapes me despite the tension in my chest. "I remember hiding behind him for most of the evening."

"You did." He says with an amused nod. "You spent half the night glaring at anyone who tried to speak to you."

"I'd like to think I've improved since then."

"You have." His smile softens. "Your father would've been proud to see how gracefully you've stepped into this role. The Krogen name remains strong under your leadership."

For just a fraction of a second, his words catch me off guard. I thank him politely, but the compliment lingers long after he moves on. If only he knew that I'm not trying to preserve my dad's legacy. I'm trying to build an empire so different from his that one day the Krogen name will no longer be defined by the man who created it.

There is barely enough time to draw another breath before more guests surround me. A CEO from one of Europe's largest shipping conglomerates raises his champagne glass with a confident smile.

"To the new head of the Krogen Empire." He announces loudly enough for several nearby conversations to stop. "May your leadership bring even greater prosperity than your father's."

Several others lift their glasses in agreement.