Chapter 2 - The Emptied Room
The stampede to leave my penthouse was swift and terrified. Richard and the other eleven associates didn't bother grabbing their coats. They grabbed their phones, nodded respectfully in frantic haste, and practically shoved one another toward the private elevator. My personal security detail ushered them out, the heavy elevator doors chiming shut with finality.
Within two minutes, the three-thousand-square-foot living room was completely empty except for three people: me, Elena, and Sophie.
The only sound remaining was the steady mechanical whine of the vault's central wheel rotating clockwise. Heavy steel bolts withdrew into their housings one by one. The air escaping from the seal carried an old, preserved scent—the smell of vintage cedar, old paper, and a faint hint of sandalwood cologne.
Julian's cologne.
Elena was weeping quietly on the cream carpet, holding Sophie against her apron. "Mr. Carter, I swear on my life she didn't mean it. We'll pack our bags. We'll leave New York tonight. Please just let us walk out of this building. She's just a baby, she doesn't know anything about vaults or money."
I knelt beside the trembling mother, keeping my posture calm. "Elena. Look at me."
She hesitated, her eyelashes wet with tears, then slowly raised her gaze to meet mine. She was thirty-one years old, her hands scarred from harsh cleaning detergents, her back perpetually strained from working twelve-hour shifts across three of my commercial properties.
"Where did you get that girl?" I asked quietly.
Elena flinched as if I’d struck her. "She's my daughter! What kind of question is that?"
"Where was she born, Elena? And who was her father?"
Elena’s lips trembled, but no words came out. She looked away, staring desperately toward the hallway exit. Her silence spoke louder than any confession.
"I know biometric scanners, Elena," I said, my voice dropping to a low, dangerous murmur. "That lock didn't respond to a mechanical pry. It responded to an encrypted vascular bloodline match. A genetic sequence registered to only two people in this world: Julian Carter, and his direct descendant."
Sophie reached out from her mother’s grip, fascinated by the silver watch on my wrist. Her fingers were warm and small against my skin. When I looked closely at her hazel eyes, the tilt of her eyebrows, and the dimple in her left cheek, the air vanished from my lungs.
It was like staring into the face of my dead brother.
May you like
"He never died alone in that car, did he?" I whispered, feeling the foundation of my entire world shifting beneath my feet.
Elena buried her face in her hands, her shoulders shaking violently. "Julian told me... he told me you would kill us if you ever found out."
