Chapter Four

Veldana

By two o'clock that afternoon, the front hall of the Crestview estate looked like a shipping dock.

Four guards from Vanguard Security stood by the marble pillars with their arms folded.

Fourteen suitcases, garment bags, and trunks were stacked along the stairs. They held every suit, watch, and cufflink Lincoln owned in this house.

I sat in the sitting room sipping black tea while Julian Vance's paralegal checked the divorce papers on the glass table. Leo was across town with his nanny at a play center I had rented for the whole afternoon.

The front doors banged open.

Lincoln marched in with his jaw tight, his tie loose and his collar open. His mother and Jenny Hall followed him like a pair of buzzards.

He had expected to find me in tears, ready to beg. Instead he saw four guards, two lawyers, and all his clothes packed by the door. He stared at the luggage, then at me.

"What is the meaning of this circus, Veldana?" he demanded. "You put guards at my gates? Do you know how this looks in broad daylight?"

"It looks like an eviction," I said, setting down my teacup. "Because it is one."

"You can't evict me. I live here."

"You live here because I let you."

"Are you insane?" Evelyn screeched. She marched forward, clutching her handbag like a weapon, her face blotchy and red. "How dare you humiliate my son! I went to pay the deposit for the country club gala, and my card was declined. Declined! You ungrateful little peasant. Without the Gibson name, you're just another coarse heiress with vulgar money!"

I looked at her. In my old life, this woman had ordered men to throw me into the wasteland while I bled. Now she was screaming about a credit card. It was almost funny.

"The Gibson name didn't pay for that membership, Evelyn," I said. "My vulgar money did. As of eight this morning, your allowance is gone. If you want to stay in the club, pay the dues yourself."

Evelyn gasped and clutched her throat as if I had hit her. "You wicked girl. After everything my son has done for you!"

"He's done nothing but spend my money."

Then a soft voice broke in. "Veldana, please. Don't be like this."

Jenny stepped out from behind Evelyn with her hands clasped and her eyes wet. "It's all a misunderstanding. Lincoln loves you. He works so hard for this family. If this is about the apartment, it was only a temporary place for my studies. He helped me because I'm family. Please don't throw your marriage away over jealousy."

Behind her trembling lip, I saw a small, happy gleam. She thought I was cracking. I stared at her pretty face and saw the woman in my cardigan, resting her chin on Evelyn's shoulder behind the bunker glass, smiling while I bled.

"Save the show, Jenny," I said, leaning back. "The Highline lease is in a shell company Lincoln made with my money. That diamond bracelet on your wrist was charged to my trust's card three weeks ago. Keep it as severance. The lease ends Friday, and you'll be on the street."

Jenny's tears dried up. She went pale and tugged her sleeve over the bracelet.

"Lincoln, tell her it was a gift!"

"Quiet, Jenny!" Lincoln stepped between us with his fists clenched. "That's enough, Veldana! You can't cut off our accounts, lock me out of my home, and treat my family like criminals. I'm your husband! Everything you put into Gibson Enterprises is part of our marital estate. You can't touch it without my signature, and you can't throw me out!"

The paralegal handed him a thick blue folder. Lincoln snatched it, skimmed the first page, and turned gray.

"The prenuptial agreement keeps all inherited trusts and property separate," the paralegal said calmly. "This house belongs only to Mrs. Cross. Gibson Enterprises was funded by loans, not equity. Our audit this morning also found over six million dollars in unauthorized transfers, fake vendor bills, and hidden offshore payments. The report is ready to go to the prosecutor's office."

"This is a bluff," Lincoln said. "You'd never take this to court."

I stood, smoothed my dress, and walked up to him until we were face to face. "Sign the divorce petition. You have until five o'clock tomorrow. If you sign, I won't press fraud charges for the stolen trust money. Keep whatever you hid offshore, and we go our own ways."

His jaw twitched. "And if I don't?" he sneered, leaning in to use his height like he always did. "I'll drag this through court for ten years. I'll freeze every asset you have. And I'll take Leo. No judge will give custody to an unstable mother who locks out her husband over paranoid delusions. Let's see how tough you are when your son is taken from you."

The room felt freezing.

Hearing Leo's name didn't make me panic. It lit a cold fury deep in my bones. In my old life, this man had let our son die of a fever because he wouldn't send one team to find antibiotics.

"Touch my son," I whispered, so coldly that Lincoln took half a step back, "and I won't stop at divorce court. I'll give the tax office the books of your shell companies. I'll give the press every transaction you made with trust money. You won't see a custody hearing. You'll see a federal prison for fraud and embezzlement. Try me."

His mouth fell open. The quiet wife who had tiptoed around his ego for years was gone.

Evelyn glanced at his pale face and the guards by the door. "Lincoln, let's go. She's unhinged. We'll handle this through our lawyers."

Lincoln swallowed. His arrogance had cracked. "You'll regret this, Veldana," he spat, though it sounded hollow. "When the city sees what a vindictive shrew you are, you'll have nobody. You'll die alone."

"I'd rather die alone than breathe the same air as you," I said. "Guards, take Mr. Gibson and his guests out. If they come back, hold them for trespassing."

"Lincoln, what about the apartment?" Jenny whimpered.

"Be quiet!"

The guards stepped in beside him. Evelyn grabbed Jenny's arm and hurried out, whispering insults. Lincoln glared at me with bitter hatred, snatched his briefcase, and stormed into the autumn air. The doors clicked shut, and the house went quiet.

I let out a long breath and rested my fingers on the marble table. The legal fight had just begun, but the parasite was out of my home, my money was safe, and my son was safe.

Yet as I looked around the grand hall, an uneasy thought settled in my chest. None of this would matter in two years.

When the virus hit, glass windows and fancy doors would be tissue paper against the horde and starving survivors. A divorce wasn't enough. Money in a bank wouldn't save Leo when the power failed.

I needed a fortress deep under the earth, where no monster could reach my child.

'Ding.'

The chime rang behind my eyes.

[EVENT DETECTED: PARASITIC TIES PARTLY CUT.]

[SCANNING FOR APOCALYPSE ASSETS...]

[RESOURCE RADAR STARTED.]

A glowing blue map appeared in the middle of the hall and spread until it filled the room. It showed the mountains around the city, turning slowly, with golden lights pulsing across it.

[RESOURCE FOUND: TITANIUM-CARBIDE DEPOSIT, SECTOR 7.]

[RESOURCE FOUND: GEOTHERMAL BASIN, BLACKWOOD VALLEY.]

[RESOURCE FOUND: PURE QUARTZ BED, RIDGEWAY CREST.]

"It's mapping what I'd need to build a shelter," I whispered.

The map zoomed in on a huge, lonely mountain basin eighty miles north of the city, a forested place called Blackwood Ridge.

The mountain peeled away and showed a giant fortress carved deep into the rock, with triple blast doors, underground farms, geothermal power, decontamination halls, and defense grids. It was built to survive more than a virus.

[FORTRESS PLAN: "AEGIS CITADEL, TIER 1 BASE."]

[ESTIMATED COST: $450,000,000.]

[DEFENSE: IMMUNE TO LEVEL-4 VIRAL CONTAMINATION. RESISTS ARTILLERY.]

[REQUIREMENT: FULL OWNERSHIP OF BLACKWOOD BASIN.]

My breath caught. Eighty miles away, a mountain was waiting to become the place where my son would be safe.

[SPECIAL MISSION: SECURE THE FOUNDATION.]

[OBJECTIVE: OWN ALL OF BLACKWOOD RIDGE WITHIN 14 DAYS.]

[REWARD: FIRST CELESTIAL GEM, TERRAIN TRANSMUTATION CORE.]

[ACCEPT THE MISSION?]