FAZER LOGINDamien"Arthur Holt wasn't your father, Damien. You're fighting for the ghost of a man who didn't even give you his name."Lawrence’s sneering parting words reverberated off the leather interior, bouncing around the dark cabin like poison.It was a psychological weapon carefully designed to shatter my focus right as Rose executed her takeover. As an independent legal architect operating entirely outside Holt corporate headquarters, Lawrence had spent thirty years maneuvering in the shadows between family trusts. He didn't panic, and he didn't drop bombshells out of generosity. He wanted me disoriented. He wanted me driving blindly into the night, questioning three decades of my life while his firm quietly secured administrative control of the asset frameworks."He's playing a game to break your stance," I told myself, staring into the rain-blinded windshield as my pulse thundered against my ribs.Yet as much as I wanted to dismiss it as a lawyer's desperate mind game, a cold, sicken
Serena Down in the valley, thirty miles away, my brain was still pondering on how to not complicate things and get me in the ruins. Inside the cab of the truck, the heater casted a warm air current over the dashboard. In the back seat, Eli was curled tightly beneath his heavy coat, his small body rising and falling as he slept. His little hands were tucked against his chest, clutching the frayed ear of his favorite bear. I turned in my seat, my eyes lingering on his face in the shadows. Almost 4 years. For these years, every decision I had made, every false identity I had assumed, every forged lease I had signed, and every midnight escape through back roads had been calculated for one single purpose: to keep this boy safe from the toxic black hole of his father's family. I had given up my name, my career, and my peace of mind so he could grow up without the shadow of the Holt enterprise looming over his shoulders. And now, as we accelerated down the winding pass toward the
DamienI hurriedly rushed to check the basement archives after I ended the call, but then decided against it. I wasn't going to overlook this, but it wasn't necessary now. This was where the company kept its past documents that pre-dated the digital age—rows of steel cabinets holding the real history of the Holt name, untouched by the modern clean-sweeps of our IT department.That'll mean digging through dusty archives, hoping a paper trail would save them. I knew better.The digital override that stripped my master credentials didn't originate from inside Holt Industries. It came from an external proxy server routed through a private firm on the north side of the city.Lawrence had never been our staff attorney. He was an independent legal architect operating from a secluded, restored manor away from the corporate district. He kept himself insulated from our daily operations by a ghost in a bespoke suit who managed private family trusts, structured off-book transactions, and drafte
RoseI don't know if I was supposed to feel like this. But every nerve in me screamed a reminder that I had to be patient.I heard a pop-up notification from my phone indicating a success.I didn't think much about sending that message. The only thing my brain could register was the outcome I expected.My fingers lightly touched the edge of the glass, watching the data streams refresh in a steady, green sequence that illuminated the dark surface before me.On the screen, the transmission log showed a hundred percent completion.The altered genetic report from Dr. Vance’s private clinic had been successfully injected into the executive board’s secure briefing packet, nestled quietly between the third-quarter financial results and the compliance audit summaries where no one would think to look until the morning session opened."It's done," I murmured to the empty room.The document I had spent the last three weeks manufacturing was a masterpiece of legal and medical forgery. To any sta
DamienThe digital terminal I was prying on was mute. There was no chime from the alarm. It simply refused my primary encryption key.I kept my fingers on the keys for three long seconds, staring at the small blinking cursor that signaled my sudden, total displacement.I had spent the last seventy-two hours straight building a digital firewall that should have severed Rose’s proxy access to the primary Holt's accounts forever. It was meant to be a clean strike to freeze her operational capital before the executive board met. It had to protect the remaining pieces of the life Serena and I had once tried to build before the empire grounded us to dust.I could still taste the bitter cinnamon tea I’d survived on, still feel the phantom ache in my shoulders from leaning over this console, hammering out lines of defense designed to shield my son Eli from the vultures circling us.Instead, the static prompt on the monitor mocked me with a single phrase, "Access Denied. Institutional Protoco
Rose I waited, and my patience had already run out. Since she's trying so hard to make things difficult for me, I hope she never regrets this. I hurriedly rush off to see Dr. Vance. It wasn't a good idea but then, with money it'll be so easy to get him. Right at his office, Dr. Vance kept his back turned to me, his fingers adjusting the dials on a small digital incubator that gave off a faint click every few seconds. He had been working in this lab for two hours without saying more than a few words to me. The facility didn't have the usual reception or security desk, just a heavy door that locked from the inside. "The trace is very faint," Vance said, finally dropping his hands and looking at the screen beside him. "The material from the glove you brought to me was mixed with dirt and grease. If this were an official court request, I would have rejected the sample immediately. A standard sample needs a clean swab." "This isn't for anyone, Vance," I reolied, leaning my weig
Serena's Pov Beeping.That was the first thing.Not pain, not light, not the slow crawl back into consciousness that they show in films where everything is soft and gauzy and someone is holding your hand. Just beeping. Steady and indifferent, like the world had kept running while I was somewhere e
Serena's Pov I sat on the couch muching on some snacks. My last encounter with the lawyer went smooth. I was watching an episode in a documentary. And it got me real bad. I was so engrossed that I didn't hear the doorbell ring.The sound of the cameras alarm brought me back to reality. I hesitated
Serena's Pov The smell of eggs hit my nostrils before I opened my eyes.I lay still for a moment. Damien's side of the bed was empty and cool. I got up, washed my face with cold water, and looked at myself in the mirror until I felt ready. Then I walked out.He was at the stove in a grey t-shirt,
Serena's POV I closed the bedroom door behind me and stood there for a moment with my back pressed against it. The apartment suddenly felt too quiet. Too small. From somewhere down the hall, I could still hear the faint murmur of their voices. I pushed myself off the door and walked toward the







