00:00Maya screamed into the blinding floodlights.
00:03Isabelle grabbed her arm.
00:05Lucia clutched tightly against her chest.
00:08Maya said, forcing herself to think past the panic,
00:12Adrian, no, what happened?
00:14We have to go to him.
00:16Marcus' voice went through the earpiece,
00:19tight and controlled despite the chaos in his tone.
00:22One of my contacts fired a warning shot.
00:25Ashworth's man went for a weapon when the floodlights triggered.
00:28It wasn't Adrian.
00:30Adrian is down, but he's not hit.
00:33Repeat, he is not hit.
00:35Maya's knees nearly buckled with relief.
00:38Marcus said grimly,
00:40Down, but not hit?
00:41Marcus, what does that mean?
00:43It means that Lawrence Ashworth just took him as a shield.
00:47Across the tarmac, Adrian knelt on the ground.
00:51Lawrence Ashworth's arm locked around his throat,
00:54a small pistol pressed against his ribs.
00:56The floodlights had turned the entire airstrip into a stage,
01:00every shadow stripped away.
01:02Lawrence shouted toward the tree line,
01:05clearly aware Marcus' people were positioned somewhere in the darkness.
01:10Nobody move.
01:11One more surprise like that,
01:13and the next bullet doesn't miss.
01:16Marcus called out,
01:17stepping into the light,
01:19with his hands raised,
01:21weapon holstered.
01:22Let him go, Lawrence.
01:23This ends now, one way or another.
01:26Adrian isn't the leverage you think he is anymore.
01:29Isabel is already off that plane.
01:31Lawrence's grip faltered slightly at the news,
01:34his composure cracking for the first time all night.
01:38Marcus said.
01:39Maya turned to Isabel,
01:41still hidden with her and Lucia at the edge of the tarmac.
01:44That's not possible.
01:46Look behind you.
01:47He needs to see you're safe.
01:49That's the only leverage that actually matters to him right now.
01:53Isabel hesitated only a moment before handing Lucia gently into Maya's arms.
01:59But Isabel was already walking forward into the floodlights,
02:02chin raised,
02:04three years of hiding,
02:05falling away with every step.
02:07Keep her safe,
02:08no matter what happens next.
02:10Isabel.
02:12Wait.
02:12Lawrence Ashworth stared at Isabel,
02:15alive,
02:15standing in front of him,
02:17three years after his own private operation was supposed to have handled her permanently.
02:23Lawrence.
02:24Lawrence.
02:25Let him go.
02:26You have nothing left to threaten anyone with.
02:29The only thing keeping this from becoming an international incident right now
02:32is how the next 30 seconds go.
02:35You were supposed to be a rumor.
02:37A ghost story,
02:38the crown buried.
02:40Not a person standing on my airstrip.
02:42I'm very much a person.
02:44And so is my daughter,
02:46who you just tried to fly out of the country like cargo.
02:49Adrian still held at gunpoint,
02:51spoke carefully,
02:53sensing the shift in Lawrence's confidence.
02:56It's over, Lawrence.
02:57Whatever you were planning to use us for,
03:00the trade agreement,
03:01the leverage,
03:02all of it,
03:03it doesn't work anymore.
03:04Isabel is alive.
03:06My daughter is safe.
03:07Every card you thought you were holding just disappeared.
03:11Lawrence's grip on the pistol wavered.
03:14Headlights swept across the tarmac
03:16as a second car screeched to a stop near the hangar.
03:20Christina stepped out,
03:21running toward the scene,
03:23despite Marcus's earlier instructions to stay back at the tray line.
03:27Father, stop!
03:28Look at what you're doing.
03:30Look at what this has actually become.
03:32Lawrence's composure finally broke completely.
03:35Christina, get back in the car.
03:38This doesn't concern you.
03:40Christina said,
03:41voice cracking,
03:43it's always concerned me.
03:45You used my engagement as a bargaining chip.
03:48You used a dead woman's memory as leverage.
03:51And now you're holding a gun to a man's ribs on a private airstrip,
03:56like some kind of criminal enterprise.
03:57This isn't diplomacy, father.
04:00This is exactly what it looks like.
04:02For the first time in the entire confrontation,
04:05Lawrence Ashworth looked,
04:07for just a moment,
04:09genuinely uncertain.
04:11Marcus said quietly,
04:12stepping closer,
04:14hands still raised,
04:15voice calm and measured,
04:17in a way that suggested years of practice,
04:20diffusing exactly this kind of moment.
04:22Put the weapon down.
04:24Just you still have a way out of this,
04:26that doesn't end in a prison cell,
04:28Lawrence.
04:29But it requires you letting him go,
04:31right now.
04:32Lawrence's eyes flicked between
04:34Isabel,
04:35Christina and Adrian.
04:36The weight of three years of scheming,
04:39finally collapsing,
04:40under the reality of the moment.
04:43Slowly,
04:43he lowered the pistol,
04:44and released Adrian,
04:46who stumbled forward,
04:48gasping,
04:49immediately pulled into Isabel's arms.
04:52Marcus moved fast,
04:53disarming Lawrence completely
04:55before he could reconsider,
04:56while his remaining contacts
04:58finally emerged from the tree line
05:00to secure the scene.
05:02Maya watched from a distance.
05:04Lucia still held safely in her arms,
05:06as Adrian and Isabel stood together
05:09for the first time in three years,
05:11a wife he'd buried in secret,
05:12now very much alive in front of him.
05:15Isabel whispered,
05:17tears streaming down her face.
05:19I'm so sorry.
05:20I wanted to reach you so many times.
05:23I was so afraid of what would happen if I did.
05:27Adrian said,
05:28voice breaking,
05:29you're here now.
05:31That's all that matters.
05:32He turned,
05:34finding Maya's eyes across the tarmac,
05:37Lucia stirring softly in her arms.
05:39The weight of everything unspoken between them
05:42settled heavily in that single look.
05:44A family reunited,
05:46and a relationship Maya had never expected to matter this much,
05:50now standing exactly where it didn't quite belong anymore.
05:53As dawn began breaking over the coastline,
05:57palace security finally arrived in full force,
06:00Lawrence Ashworth taken into custody,
06:02Christina standing pale and shaken beside her father's now empty car.
06:08Adrian carried Lucia gently from Maya's arms,
06:11the little girl finally calming,
06:13as Isabel wrapped both of them in an exhausted embrace.
06:17Maya stepped back,
06:19watching the family she'd helped save,
06:21feeling suddenly,
06:22painfully like an outsider to a story
06:24that had never really been about her at all.
06:27A text from an unknown number,
06:29different from Lawrence's,
06:31different from anything they'd received all night.
06:33You saved the wrong family tonight,
06:35Miss Reyes.
06:36Check on your brother.
06:38Maya's blood ran cold.
06:40She dialed Tommy's number with shaking hands.
06:43It rang,
06:44and rang.
06:46No one answered.
06:47Coming up in episode 10,
06:49check on your brother.
06:50As Isabel's return upends the palace,
06:53Maya races home to discover a threat
06:55that has nothing to do with the crown of Belmore,
06:58and everything to do with the past
07:00she left behind in America.
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