Rain poured through the shattered lock channel.
Sirens wailed somewhere above. Water slammed against stone walls. Both damaged boats groaned against metal and concrete.
Oliver landed on Adrian's deck before the vessels fully stopped moving.
Anna followed two steps behind despite every future argument this would cause.
"Stay back," Oliver snapped.
"Predictable," she replied, climbing over broken railing anyway.
The deck was chaos—splintered wood, bent steel, scattered glass.
Adrian rose slowly near the helm, blood at his temple, one hand gripping the rail.
Still smiling.
"You always did enter dramatically."
Oliver kept walking.
"You always did mistake survival for victory."
Two armed men emerged from below deck.
They never got a second step.
Oliver's security came over both rails, taking them down instantly.
Adrian glanced around and sighed.
"Standards have dropped."
Oliver stopped only feet away.
Years stood between them.
Family ghosts. Lies. Theft. Violence.
Adrian looked at him almost fondly.
"You could have ruled beside me."
"I'd rather burn beside enemies than dine beside you."
Adrian's smile widened.
"There's your father speaking."
Something changed in Oliver then.
Sharper.
Colder.
He grabbed Adrian by the collar and drove him against the wheel console hard enough to crack it.
"No," Oliver said quietly. "This is me."
Anna felt the deck itself go still.
Adrian coughed once, then laughed through pain.
"Good. I was worried grief made you soft."
Oliver's fist struck him.
Once.
Precise.
Controlled.
Not rage.
Judgment.
Adrian collapsed to one knee.
Anna stepped closer.
"Where is Veronica?"
Adrian wiped blood from his mouth.
"Free."
"Wrong answer," Oliver said.
He crouched to Adrian's level.
"You built your life on leverage."
A beat.
"Now you have none."
Adrian's eyes lifted.
"You still have one weakness."
His gaze moved to Anna.
Oliver became dangerous in a way words rarely capture.
Security shifted instinctively backward.
Even they felt it.
"Finish that sentence," Oliver said softly.
Adrian smiled through split lips.
"I don't need to."
Then he pressed something hidden in his palm.
A trigger.
Nothing happened.
His smile faltered.
Anna looked past him.
In the doorway stood Veronica, holding a detached receiver and Adrian's second gun.
Bandaged shoulder. Perfect posture. Mild annoyance.
"You really should stop trusting me selectively," she said.
Adrian stared.
"You traitorous—"
She fired once into the ceiling.
"Insults bore me."
Anna blinked.
"You switched sides again?"
Veronica shrugged.
"I switched toward probability."
Oliver straightened.
"For once, useful."
"Don't ruin it," Veronica replied.
Police boats now filled the canal entrance.
Searchlights cut across rain.
Adrian looked around and understood at last.
No exits.
No allies.
No audience.
Just consequences.
He laughed once more, quieter now.
"All this for money you still don't control."
Oliver looked down at him.
"I never wanted your money."
"Then what?"
Oliver's answer came without hesitation.
"Freedom from men like you."
That landed harder than any strike.
Adrian's face emptied.
Because power meant nothing if no one envied it.
Officers boarded and took custody.
As they dragged Adrian away, he called back:
"You think this family ends with me?"
Oliver didn't even turn.
"It improves."
The rain eased.
Emergency teams secured both boats.
Anna stood near the rail catching her breath.
Oliver approached slowly, knuckles bruised, coat soaked, eyes still storm-dark.
"You followed me again," he said.
"You rammed a boat."
"Reasonable response."
"It was psychotic."
"It worked."
She looked at him for a long moment.
Then touched his injured hand carefully.
"You're hurt."
"Barely."
"You say that about emotional wounds too."
He went still.
She glanced toward the city lights.
"Your father survived."
"Yes."
"Adrian is finished."
"Yes."
"The hidden fortune still exists."
"Yes."
A pause.
"And you still look like someone carrying too much."
His gaze held hers.
"I don't know how not to."
Anna stepped closer until rain was no longer between them.
"Learn."
Then she kissed him.
Not strategic this time.
Not punishing.
Steady.
Certain.
When she pulled back, Oliver rested his forehead against hers.
Around them, sirens, police, water, ruined boats.
Yet the quiet between them felt stronger than all of it.
Then Veronica called from the next deck:
"If you're done being cinematic, there's one more problem."
Neither moved.
Anna sighed.
"Of course there is."
Veronica lifted a waterproof folder.
Stamped with Oliver's family crest.
"I found Adrian's final insurance policy."
The war was ending.
Which meant the last betrayal was just beginning.