LOGINThe shadow in the garden moved with intent.Even through broken audio and partial visuals, Alina knew what she was seeing. Not a passerby. Not a thief. The movement was controlled, trained.Her pulse spiked. “They are there to silence her,” Alina said quietly.Sebastian didn’t argue. He didn’t need to.If the woman spoke, if Alina confirmed the truth about her birth, everything Catherine and Knox had built would collapse. Alina wasn’t just Jonathan’s daughter. She was a Hart heir with power, married into the Vaughn family, far beyond Catherine’s control.And Knox knew it.Inside the house in Atheria, lights flicked on and off. Shadows crossed the windows. Efficient. Planned.“They’re moving her,” Sebastian said. “Or ending it.”Alina swallowed. “We won’t reach Atheria in time.”Sebastian was already moving.He pulled out his secure phone, turning away slightly as the line connected. His voice was calm, precise, no wasted words.“Julian,” he said. “I need you now.”The reply came dry,
The breakthrough didn’t come from the estate records. It came from the moment the field investigator Sebastian had hired reported back... Catherine had moved, and everything had changed.Long before his death, Jonathan quietly set up a backup plan in case something felt wrong. He didn’t start an investigation or put anyone under surveillance. Instead, he created a secure line to someone he trusted, whose only role was to notice small shifts, changes in behavior or patterns that didn’t feel right.After his death, Alina found the channel buried deep in his private files. There were no instructions. Just a single line, written in his hand:If anything changes, he’ll notice.Alina did.Catherine’s behavior had changed, fewer public appearances, quiet travel under false bookings, security reassigned under company names. Everything was tightly managed.Too tightly.The field investigator’s reports, sent directly through the channel Alina had rebuilt, confirmed her suspicions. Each update,
Night had settled over Alina’s house. Outside, security lights hummed softly. Inside, the glow from her tablet traced the lines of data across her face.Sebastian stood nearby, arms crossed, watching her more than the screen.Alina exhaled slowly. “Catherine wasn’t hiding the surrogate to protect me. She was protecting herself.”Sebastian’s gaze sharpened. “From what?”Alina turned the tablet toward him. “From a woman who could undo everything she built.”A name appeared, buried under layers of altered records, sealed files, and falsified deaths.“Catherine’s pregnancy changed everything,” Alina said. “She couldn’t let my dad know about the child she was carrying, but she also couldn’t risk losing what she’d built. So she arranged a surrogate agreement that wasn’t legal, wasn’t clean, and made sure the woman disappeared afterward.”Sebastian’s jaw tightened. “And Knox?”Alina paused. “Knox funded the disappearance,” she said. “Not out of loyalty. Out of revenge.”Another file appeared
Weeks after the hospital, the countryside of Marlowe lay quiet, deceptively still.Rolling fields and narrow dirt roads hid a past Jonathan Hart had tried to bury... and a secret someone still wanted protected.Alina, Sebastian, Dawson, Milton, John, and the bodyguards walked carefully along the overgrown path to an old stone cottage. Shuttered windows and a sagging roof made it look abandoned. Alina’s tablet showed no cameras or sensors.“This place isn’t on any public record,” Sam murmured, tapping his tablet. “Private medical facility. Closed years ago, off the grid. Whoever ran it wanted it invisible.”Alina leaned forward, alert despite her recent injuries. “If the surrogate was handled quietly, this is where it would have happened. My father left Birmingham, moved here after marrying Catherine. Any trace of a secret like this would be buried deep and isolated.”Sebastian’s jaw tightened. “You just recovered. The next search isn’t yours. You coordinate, we protect. You don’t risk
Some truths are buried to protect. Others to control. And some... are waiting for the right person to uncover them.The room felt heavier now, every breath tight with unspoken tension.No one moved. No one spoke.Catherine’s footsteps had faded, but her words lingered, settling like smoke in every corner of the room.Alina inhaled slowly, but her body wasn’t ready to rise. She stayed seated, mind sharp, determination hardening with every heartbeat.Sebastian watched her carefully. “Alina...”“I’m fine,” she said. And she was. Not untouched but steady. “I’m done letting people dangle pieces of my life in front of me like a threat.”Jameson exhaled slowly, anger simmering beneath restraint. “She came to provoke you. To destabilize all of us.”“And she failed,” Alina replied. “But she said something important. Which means she slipped. Catherine never risks exposing anything unless she thinks she still has control.”Sebastian’s gaze narrowed. “So what’s your move?”Alina’s gaze sharpened,
Some truths don’t resurface to be understood, they return to destroy everything that believed in them.Sebastian sat at Alina’s bedside, the steady beep of monitors filling the room. He watched the medical team adjust lines and check vitals, occasionally resting a gentle hand on her arm.“Alina,” he murmured quietly. “Charlotte’s been calling. Wake up, baby.”Across the VIP suite, Sam, John, and Milton were locked over laptops. Hart estate security feeds ran across their screens, door logs, patrol rotations, camera timelines.Duncan entered, voice steady. “One of the maids raised concerns about Mrs. Agatha, my grandmother’s longtime caretaker. She has a son. We’re cross-checking both their movements.”They reviewed footage. Agatha left the estate. She met her son at his apartment. Cameras showed her entering his unit. No exit recorded. Yet estate cameras later showed her back inside the Hart estate.John frowned. “She entered the building, never left... but somehow returned to the est







