The Empire State Building's spire pierced a blood-red sunset as Liam Burke adjusted his cufflinks—miniature EMP devices disguised as onyx studs. Sophia's grip on his arm tightened, her custom Versace gown whispering with every step. The fabric's Kevlar weave shimmered under chandeliers shaped like wedding bands, each crystal holding a SnowTech surveillance drone.
"Remember the rules," Evelyn's voice slithered through his cochlear implant. "Bow when they call you clone. Kiss me when the NASDAQ crashes. And if Bianca starts reciting vows..." A champagne flute shattered somewhere. "...throw her out the fucking window."
Across the 86th floor observatory, Bianca Quinn blew Liam a kiss. Her "bridesmaids" were CIA snipers in Vera Wang tactical dresses. The diamond bouquet in her hand glinted with suspicious wiring.
Sophia stiffened as a waiter offered caviar on a biometric spoon. "They're scanning your retinas," she hissed, her Louboutin stiletto crushing the tracker hidden in her lobster vol-au-vent.
Liam's Celestial Sect tattoo pulsed beneath his collar—a warning. On the 360-degree LED screens, his childhood "home videos" played on loop. A six-year-old version of himself strapped to a medical table, screaming as scalpels peeled his skin. The caption read: SnowTech's Inspirational Journey - From Lab Rat to Trophy Husband.
Evelyn ascended the podium in a dress that liquefied and reformed with each step—molecular fabric shifting from Armani Privé to bulletproof Nanotube weave. "Tonight we merge!" Her voice echoed through Wall Street's canyon. "Not just companies, but destinies."
The holographic Dow Jones graph exploded. Sophia gasped as Warren Corp's stock evaporated—$3.2 billion siphoned into a SnowTech subsidiary called Eternal Vows LLC.
"Time to dance, husband." Evelyn's nails dug into Liam's wrist, her engagement ring injecting a truth serum.
Business Carnage Sequence:
First Strike: Liam refracts a laser through a champagne flute, projecting a hedge fund CEO's mistress onto JPMorgan's headquarters.Countermove: Sophia "accidentally" spills Bordeaux on a rival's suit, activating nanobots that devour his offshore accounts.Grand Reveal: Bianca detonates the rooftop helipad, forcing billionaires to propose at gunpoint—including a 92-year-old oil tycoon offering his granddaughter as dowry.
Midnight struck with a symphony of shattering glass.
Twenty Liam clones repelled from choppers, their weapons as diverse as their designer tailoring:
Wall Street Variant: Tom Ford suit firing stock manipulation algorithmsNinja Edition: Katana blades engraved with blockchain addressesYandere Model: Hypodermic needles filled with marriage toxin
"Where is the original?" they chorused, gun barrels forming a heart-shaped kill zone.
Sophia's back hit the observatory's edge. Her fingers found the barcode on Liam's neck—freshly scarred over. "Was Coney Island staged too? Our first kiss...your wounds..."
Liam ripped his shirt open. The Celestial Sect tattoo glowed with Sophia's birthdate in Aramaic. "They can't copy this." He smashed a clone's face into the zodiac floor mosaic. "Or this."
Midnight struck with a symphony of shattering glass.
Twenty Liam clones repelled from choppers, their weapons as diverse as their designer tailoring:
Wall Street Variant: Tom Ford suit firing stock manipulation algorithmsNinja Edition: Katana blades engraved with blockchain addressesYandere Model: Hypodermic needles filled with marriage toxin
"Where is the original?" they chorused, gun barrels forming a heart-shaped kill zone.
Sophia's back hit the observatory's edge. Her fingers found the barcode on Liam's neck—freshly scarred over. "Was Coney Island staged too? Our first kiss...your wounds..."
Liam ripped his shirt open. The Celestial Sect tattoo glowed with Sophia's birthdate in Aramaic. "They can't copy this." He smashed a clone's face into the zodiac floor mosaic. "Or this."
When the last clone fell, Times Square went dark.
A holographic Vesper Black materialized astride a Ducati, her wedding veil streaming live feeds from every NYC traffic cam. "Auction closed, bitches." She fired a flare gun into the Hudson, igniting the sky with her dark web receipt:
LOT 666: LIAM BURKE'S VIRGINITY
WINNING BID: $742,100,000 (PAID IN BITCOIN & BLOOD)
Triple Betrayal Crescendo:
Surviving clones knelt with Tiffany boxes—Vesper's malware overwrote their programming.Evelyn's dress morphed into a stock ticker, revealing $78B profit from cloning tech.Sophia's engagement ring laser-sliced the floor, exposing the real Project Phoenix lab.
The sublevel lab reeked of formaldehyde and forgery. Cryogenic pods glowed like cursed wedding cakes, each holding Liam duplicates in varying stages of decay. At the chamber's heart lay the source—a man with Liam's face and a chest tattoo reading:
PROJECT PHOENIX SPECIMEN 01
STATUS: DECOMMISSIONED (TERMINATION DATE: 09/09/2009)
Evelyn's stiletto crushed the control panel. "Meet your genetic donor, darling." Her smile cut colder than liquid nitrogen. "And my first husband."
Alarms screamed in harmony with Bianca's nuclear countdown. Liam's pulse synced to the warhead's timer—00:05:57.
Vesper's laughter rained from vents. "Till death do us part, copycat!"
Sophia grabbed a scalpel from the surgical tray. Her reflection wavered in the original Liam's pod—his eyes milky with decades of frozen sleep.
"Choose." She pressed the blade to Evelyn's throat. "Your father's corpse or my heartbeat."
Cliffhanger: The Original Sin
Deep within the Hudson's sludge, a Quinn Logistics container burst open. The Liam clone inside blinked newborn eyes, his tattoo fresh and unmarked. On his wrist, a SnowTech watch beeped with a familiar alert:
NEXT MARRIAGE TARGET: VESPER BLACK
SCHEDULED: 00:00:01
Above the river, the Empire State Building's lights died. Every window exploded in unison, raining glass like diamond vows over Manhattan's corpse.