Chapter 5

My mother.

The woman who had whispered poison into my ear about Seraphina for three years—calling her a social climber, a parasite, a "nobody"—was now standing in the heart of the Vance sanctuary like she owned the floorboards.

The rain felt like needles now. I didn't wait for permission. I bypassed the main entrance and sprinted toward the service door I’d seen a maid use earlier. My "Intern" badge was a curse, but it was also a skeleton key; the Vance security system recognized my biometrics as a low-level employee and clicked open.

I moved through the shadows of the mansion, my heart a frantic drum. I reached the third-floor library and pushed the heavy oak doors open.

"Mother?"

The Dowager Thorne, Beatrice, didn't flinch. She turned slowly, her silk gown rustling. She looked younger, energized, as if the "eviction" I’d been told about was nothing more than a spa day.

"Xander," she sighed, swirling her Bordeaux. "I told you that you didn't have the stomach for this world. You were always too emotional. Just like your father."

"What are you doing here?" I demanded, stepping into the light. "Seraphina is ruining us. She’s destroying the company Dad built, and you’re... you’re having a drink in her library?"

Beatrice laughed, a dry, hollow sound. "The company your father built? Xander, darling, the Thorne Group was built on Vance's blood. Your father didn't 'build' an empire; he stole one. He married me because I was a Vance cousin, and he spent thirty years trying to hide the fact that he was nothing but a glorified accountant who got lucky."

I froze. "A Vance cousin? You're related to them?"

"Distantly," she said, her eyes narrowing. "But enough to know that the Vance inheritance was the only thing that mattered. Seraphina didn't just 'appear' as an heiress. I found her. I brought her to you. I needed a Thorne heir with pure Vance blood to consolidate the holdings. The divorce? That was the plan all along. Once she had the child and you were out of the way, the two empires would merge under my control."

The room tilted. My mother hadn't hated Seraphina. She had curated her. She had manipulated us both into a marriage of convenience for a long-game takeover I was never meant to survive.

"And Seraphina?" I whispered. "Does she know you’re the one who poisoned Dad?"

Beatrice’s smile vanished. "She suspects. That’s why she’s being so... difficult. She thinks she’s in control now because she has the title. But she’s pregnant, vulnerable, and surrounded by my people."

"I won't let you," I said, reaching for my phone.

"You'll do exactly what you're told," Beatrice snapped. "Or I'll tell the police that you were the one who switched your father's medication. I have the paper trail, Xander. I’ve spent twenty years perfecting it."

The door behind me creaked. I spun around.

Seraphina stood there. She looked pale, her hand resting protectively over her stomach. She had heard everything.

"Beatrice," Seraphina said, her voice trembling with a rage so cold it felt like liquid nitrogen. "You're in my house."

"I'm in our house, dear," Beatrice corrected. "And it's time for you to go to bed. You're eating for two now. We wouldn't want anything... accidental... to happen to the heir, would we?"

Julian appeared behind Seraphina, his hand on his holster, but three other security guards stepped out from the shadows behind my mother. They weren't wearing Vance colors. They were Thorne loyalists—men I had hired myself.

"Julian, stand down," I commanded, my voice cracking. "They have the room."

"Xander..." Seraphina looked at me, and for the first time in days, I saw the woman I had married. She was terrified. Not for herself, but for the life inside her.

At that moment, the flash drive Melanie had given me burned against my thigh. Melanie wasn't working for me. She was working for my mother. The drive wasn't a "wiper"—it was likely the final piece of evidence Beatrice needed to put me away for good and take custody of Seraphina's child.

I realized I had one move left. The "Protective Hero" role I had failed at for three years.

I stepped toward Seraphina, placing myself between her and my mother. I looked at the woman who gave me birth and realized she was the monster in every story I’d ever been told.

"The internship is over, Mother," I said, pulling out my phone and hitting a button I had programmed years ago as a fail-safe for Thorne Industries. It wasn't a call to the police. It was a "Dead Man’s Switch" that released every encrypted file in the Thorne servers to the public—including the ones Beatrice thought she controlled.

"What are you doing?" Beatrice shrieked, dropping her glass.

"If I'm going down, everyone goes down," I said, grabbing Seraphina’s hand. Her fingers were ice-cold, but she gripped mine back with a strength that surprised me. "Julian! Get her to the car! Now!"

The room erupted. One of the guards lunged forward, but Julian was faster, dropping him with a clinical strike. I shoved Seraphina toward the door.

"Go!" I yelled. "I'll hold them off!"

"Xander, no!" Seraphina cried out.

I didn't look back. I tackled the second guard, the two of us crashing into a bookshelf. As I struggled, I saw Julian whisk Seraphina out of the library.

I was being pummeled, a fist catching me in the jaw, then the ribs. Through the haze of pain, I saw my mother standing over me, her face contorted in a mask of pure hatred.

"You fool," she hissed. "You’ve destroyed everything for a girl who doesn't even want you."

"Maybe," I coughed, tasting blood. "But at least my son will know his father wasn't a murderer."

I felt a heavy blow to the back of my head, and the world faded to black.

---

I woke up to the sound of a steady beep... beep... beep...

The smell of antiseptic hit me first. A hospital. Again.

I tried to sit up, but a hand pressed gently against my shoulder. I looked up, expecting a nurse or a police officer.

It was Seraphina.

She was sitting in a chair beside my bed, her eyes red-rimmed. She wasn't wearing a power suit or diamonds. She was wearing an old, oversized hoodie—one of mine she had kept.

"You're awake," she whispered.

"The files..." I croaked. "Did they...?"

"They went public," she said, a small, sad smile touching her lips. "Your mother was arrested at the border two hours ago. Melanie is in custody. The 'Thorne-Vance' conspiracy is the only thing on the news."

I closed my eyes, a wave of relief washing over me. "And you? The baby?"

She took a deep breath, reaching out to take my hand. She guided it to her stomach. Under the soft fabric, I felt a tiny, rhythmic pulse.

"We're okay, Xander. But the company is gone. Everything is gone. I’ve stepped down as CEO to deal with the legal fallout. I'm just... Sara again."

I looked at her, my heart aching with a regret so deep it felt like a physical weight. "I don't care about the company, Sara. I never should have let them change me. I’m sorry. I know 'sorry' doesn't fix three years of being a monster, but—"

"It doesn't," she interrupted, her voice firm. "And I haven't forgiven you. Not yet."

She stood up, looking toward the window where the sun was finally beginning to rise over Aurelia City.

"But," she continued, "the doctors found something during your intake. Your body is rejecting the transplant, Xander. The stress, the trauma... the kidney I gave you is failing."

I stared at her, stunned. "What?"

"You have six months," she said, turning to look at me. Her eyes were no longer cold; they were filled with a complicated, devastating kind of love. "Unless we find another match. And this time, I can't be the one to save you."

Xander finally has Seraphina’s attention and a chance at a family, but his time is literally running out. Will he spend his last months trying to win her back, or will he discover that the "failed" transplant is actually part of a final, lingering trap set by his mother?