Chapter 4

​Isabella POV

​The blue and red lights of the police cruisers pulse against the glass walls of the office like a strobe light. It is a rhythmic, accusing heartbeat.

​Kidnapping.

​Julian is smarter than I gave him credit for. He couldn't prove I was Isabella Vane with a shattered phone, so he decided to burn the whole house down. If I am found here, Liam goes to prison for abduction. If I reveal I am here willingly, the "Bella Smith" mask is shredded in front of the world. My father will drag me home in handcuffs of silk, and I will be back in the cage by midnight.

​"Felix, go down there," Liam says. His voice is a low, dangerous calm. "Tell them I am finishing a meeting. Delay them for five minutes. Not four. Not six. Five."

​Felix nods, his face the color of parchment, and disappears.

​Liam turns to me. He is not panicked. He looks like a general watching a battlefield. He reaches out and grabs my shoulders. His grip is firm. It pins me to the reality of the moment.

​"The police are in the lobby, Isabella. In five minutes, they will be through those doors. You have two choices."

​He leans in close. I can see the reflection of the sirens in his dark pupils.

​"Choice one: You walk out there. You tell them you are Isabella Vane. You play the victim. You tell them I lured you here. You go back to your father, you marry Julian, and you live the rest of your life as a calculator in a dress."

​I feel a cold shiver of revulsion. "And choice two?"

​"You trust me."

​"Trust you?" I let out a jagged laugh. "You just admitted you’ve been stalking me since I left home. You’re using me as a weapon against my father. Why should I trust a man who sees me as a tool for revenge?"

​Liam’s expression doesn't soften. If anything, it hardens. "Because I am the only person in this city who isn't afraid of Arthur Vane. And because right now, I am the only thing standing between you and a life of quiet desperation."

​I look at the sapphire at my throat. It is heavy. It feels like a promise and a threat all at once.

​"The service elevator is in the back of the filing room," Liam says, his voice dropping to a whisper. "It leads to the basement garage. There is a gray sedan parked in bay forty-two. The keys are in the visor."

​"Where am I going?"

​"To the one place Julian won't look. To the lion’s den."

​The sound of heavy boots hits the marble floor of the outer office. The five minutes are up.

​"Go," Liam says. He lets go of my shoulders. "Decide who you are, Isabella. A victim or a queen. But decide now."

​I don't look back. I run.

​The Garage

​The service elevator is slow. Every second feels like an hour. When the doors finally slide open, the garage is silent and smelling of exhaust. I find bay forty-two. The gray sedan is unremarkable. It is the kind of car a middle-manager drives. It is perfect.

​I find the keys. The engine purrs to life. I drive toward the exit, my heart hammering. Two police cruisers are parked at the entrance, but the officers are inside the building. I slip past them, turning onto the main road, blending into the sea of yellow taxis and morning traffic.

​I follow the GPS coordinates Liam had pre-set into the car's dash. As I drive, I realize where he is sending me.

​I am heading toward the Vane District. The heart of my father’s territory.

​I pull into a gated apartment complex three blocks away from my father’s corporate headquarters. The security guard looks at the car, looks at my "Bella" glasses, and waves me through.

​I find the unit. 50B.

​I use the key from the glovebox. I expect a safe house. I expect a high-tech bunker.

​Instead, I walk into a space that is filled with books, old blueprints, and the smell of cedar. It is a penthouse, but it is lived-in. There are photos on the wall.

​I walk closer to the photos.

​It is a younger Liam. He is standing next to a woman with a brilliant smile. They are standing in front of a small tech startup. The sign reads: Sterling & Vane.

​My breath hitches.

​My father never mentioned a partner. He always said he built the empire alone. But in these photos, Liam’s mother is at the center of everything. She wasn't just a partner. She was the architect.

​I see a file on the desk. It is labeled: Project Medusa.

​I open it. It is a blueprint for a software that can track every digital transaction in the city. It is the ultimate tool for corporate espionage. And at the bottom of the page is my father’s signature.

​He didn't just steal her company. He stole her life’s work.

​The door behind me opens. I spin around, the sapphire at my neck catching the light.

​It isn't Liam.

​It is a woman. She is older, her hair silvered at the temples, but her eyes are the same piercing dark as Liam’s.

​"You must be the girl who broke Julian Miller’s heart," she says. Her voice is like velvet. "I’m Catherine Sterling. Liam’s mother."

​"You... you're alive?" I stammer. "Liam said... he said the Vanes took your life."

​Catherine walks into the room, leaning on a silver cane. "In the way that matters, they did. They took my name. They took my legacy. I’ve been a ghost for fifteen years, living in this beautiful cage Liam built for me."

​She looks at me, her gaze lingering on the sapphire.

​"You have your mother’s chin," she says softly. "She was a good woman. Too soft for Arthur."

​"Why am I here?" I ask. My head is spinning.

​"Because Liam thinks you are the missing piece," Catherine says. She sits in a velvet armchair. "He thinks you have the key to my father’s final encryption. The one he changed before he forced me out. Without it, Project Medusa is just a pile of code. With it... we can see everything Arthur Vane is hiding."

​"I don't have a key," I say. "I was a child when all this happened."

​"You have the sapphire," Catherine points to my neck. "Look at the setting, Isabella. Truly look at it."

​I unclip the necklace. I turn the heavy stone over in my hands. On the back of the gold setting, there is a micro-engraving. It isn't words. It is a sequence of prime numbers.

​The numbers I used to memorize as a game when I was six years old. My father called them my "princess codes."

​I wasn't a princess. I was a backup drive.

​Liam POV

​I stand in the center of my office, my hands behind my back. Julian is standing next to a police sergeant, looking triumphant.

​"There he is," Julian says, pointing a shaking finger at me. "The man who kidnapped my fiancée. Arrest him."

​The sergeant looks at me. "Mr. Sterling, we have a report that Isabella Vane is on these premises."

​"Search the building," I say calmly. "Search every inch. If you find a girl named Isabella Vane, I will go quietly."

​The search takes forty minutes. They check the offices, the server rooms, the parking garage.

​They find nothing.

​"She was here!" Julian screams, his face turning a purplish red. "I saw her! She was dressed as an intern! Bella Smith!"

​I look at the sergeant. "Felix, bring me the HR file for Bella Smith."

​Felix hands over a folder. I hand it to the officer.

​"Bella Smith is a real person," I say. "She is currently on a business trip to our London branch. She boarded a flight three hours ago. You can check the manifest."

​Julian grabs the file. He rips it open. He sees the photo of a girl who looks vaguely like Isabella, but her features are different. It is a perfect deep-fake, planted in the system months ago.

​"This is a lie!" Julian shouts.

​"What is a lie, Julian, is your Miller Tech audit," I say, stepping forward. "The one my 'intern' finished this morning. The one that proves you’ve been embezzling from your own wedding fund."

​The sergeant’s radio crackles.

​"Sir, we have a problem. There’s a live broadcast hitting every major news network. It’s... it’s Isabella Vane."

​Julian freezes. I turn toward the television on the wall.

​The screen flickers. It is a video message. Isabella is standing in front of a neutral background. She is wearing the red dress. She looks like a queen.

​"My name is Isabella Vane," she says to the camera. "I am not missing. I am not a victim. I am coming forward to announce that I am filing a federal lawsuit against my father, Arthur Vane, and my former fiancé, Julian Miller, for corporate fraud and the theft of Sterling intellectual property."

​She looks directly into the lens. Her eyes are cold. Unbreakable.

​"And to my father... I am coming for the throne."

​The screen goes black.

​Julian sinks into a chair, his head in his hands. The sergeant looks at me, then at Julian.

​"Mr. Miller, I think you have some explaining to do."

​I walk to the window. I look toward the Vane District. The war has moved into the light.

​My phone buzzes in my pocket. A text from an unknown number.

​The codes worked. I’m inside the system. But Liam... you forgot to tell me one thing.

​I frown. I type back. What?

​The reply comes instantly.

​The police didn't find me because I left. But someone else found the safe house. I’m not alone.

​I feel a cold jolt of adrenaline. I didn't send anyone else to the house.

​I look at the security feed of Catherine’s apartment on my tablet.

​The front door is standing open. Catherine is slumped in her chair, unconscious.

​And standing over Isabella is a man in a black suit. He isn't a cleaner. He isn't a cop.

​He is my father’s brother. The man who was supposed to have died ten years ago.