Mag-log inThe word hung in the room long after Damian said it. “Yes.” Silas didn’t move. For a moment the boy simply stood there, staring at him. The storm outside had softened to a quiet rain, but the silence inside the living room felt heavier than the thunder that had shaken the house earlier. Evelyn’s heart pounded painfully in her chest. She hadn’t been ready for this. Not like this. Not with the truth falling into the room so suddenly. Silas looked from Damian to Evelyn. Then back again. His voice came small, uncertain. “You’re… my dad?” Damian took a slow breath. “Yes.” The boy’s brow furrowed slightly as he tried to understand. He looked down at the floor for a moment, processing the words in the way children do—slowly, carefully, trying to fit new pieces into a world that had always seemed simple. Then he looked up again. “But… Mom said my dad wasn’t here.” Evelyn stepped forward quickly. “Silas, sweetheart—” Silas held up a small hand. “Wait.” His eyes returned t
The storm continued through the night. Wind pushed against the tall windows of the estate while rain swept across the gardens outside. Emergency lights still glowed faintly along the hallways after the earlier power outage, casting long shadows across the quiet house. Silas slept in Evelyn’s bed. Or at least he had fallen asleep there. Damian had stayed downstairs in the living room again, unwilling to leave the house while the storm raged and the threat against the boy still felt dangerously close. But sleep refused to come. Too many thoughts crowded his mind. Aurora. Helix. The attempted kidnapping. And the moment in the study earlier that night. He sat on the couch, staring at the dark windows, replaying Evelyn’s words in his head. Hatred doesn’t last forever. The sound of soft footsteps above finally pulled him from his thoughts. Evelyn descended the staircase quietly. She wore a simple sweater now, her hair loose around her shoulders. “You’re still awake,” she sai
The storm arrived after midnight. Wind rattled the tall windows of the estate while rain poured heavily across the gardens outside. Lightning flashed across the sky, briefly illuminating the trees beyond the security walls. Inside the house, most of the lights had been dimmed for the night. Silas had finally fallen asleep hours earlier after insisting Damian read him a story. The boy had resisted going to bed at first, still shaken from the kidnapping attempt the night before. But eventually exhaustion won. Now the estate had grown quiet again. Evelyn sat alone in the study, reviewing the Aurora files spread across the large table. The desk lamp cast a soft pool of light over the documents while the storm outside deepened the shadows around the room. Her eyes burned slightly from reading. The more she learned about the experiment, the more unsettled she felt. Sixteen failed subjects. One survivor. Silas. She closed her eyes briefly and pressed her fingers against her templ
Late afternoon light stretched across the estate gardens when Victor Kane’s car passed through the front gates. The security guard on duty hesitated only a moment before allowing the vehicle through. Victor Kane had been visiting this house for years. His presence was familiar, almost expected. But today the atmosphere felt different. More guards than usual stood near the main entrance. Additional patrol vehicles lined the curved driveway. Victor stepped out of the car slowly, adjusting the cuff of his jacket as he studied the security layout. Evelyn had clearly increased protection after the attack. Which meant she was afraid. And fear made people rely on whoever stood closest to them. Victor intended to make sure that person remained with him. He walked up the stone steps and entered the house. The moment he stepped into the main hall, he sensed the shift. Someone else was here. Victor’s eyes moved calmly through the room. Then he saw him. Damian Blackwood stood near
Victor Kane never rushed decisions. He believed patience was power. The world belonged to those who waited long enough for everyone else to reveal their weaknesses. But tonight, patience felt like a threat. The private office inside Kane Tower was dimly lit, the city stretching endlessly beyond the glass walls. Midnight traffic moved far below like slow rivers of light. Victor sat alone behind his desk. His tablet displayed a secure medical database. Accessing it had not been simple. Three different hospital systems. Two encrypted research archives. A private pediatric registry that required executive authorization. But Victor Kane had spent years building influence in places most people never noticed. If information existed, he could reach it. He tapped the screen once more. The file finally opened. Patient Record: S.V. For a moment Victor simply stared at the initials. He had expected something strange. But not this. He began scrolling. Birth records. Emergency int
Rain fell steadily across the city that evening, turning the glass towers downtown into long streaks of reflected light. Inside Blackwood Tower, Damian stood alone in his office. The lights were low, the massive digital investigation board glowing across the far wall like a quiet battlefield. Names, timelines, financial flows, and fragments of the Aurora investigation were pinned together by threads of data. The deeper he went, the clearer one thing became. Project Aurora had never truly disappeared. Someone had been watching it. Waiting for it. Damian leaned over the desk, scrolling through another financial ledger recovered from one of Edward Blackwood’s encrypted archives. Most of the files had been wiped clean. But fragments remained. And fragments were enough. His phone buzzed. Grant’s voice came through immediately when he answered. “You’re still awake.” “You say that like it’s unusual.” “It’s midnight.” Damian’s eyes remained on the screen. “Did you find anythi
The meeting was arranged without assistants, security briefings, or records. That alone made it dangerous. Evelyn chose the location carefully. A neutral space neither connected to Blackwood Industries nor Kane Holdings. A private art gallery closed for renovation on the edge of the financial dis
The message arrived without warning. No sender ID. No encryption signature. Only a secure forwarding relay routed through three international servers before landing inside Evelyn’s private communications system. Her assistant flagged it immediately as abnormal. Evelyn opened it herself. A singl
The tension inside Blackwood Tower no longer hid behind polite corporate language. It breathed openly now. Screens across the executive floor glowed with falling stock indicators, financial news banners looping endlessly beneath market analysis panels. The Blackwood name, once synonymous with sta
Morning sunlight filtered softly through the tall iron gates of St. Aurelius Academy, turning the polished stone driveway gold. Security vehicles discreetly lined the entrance, their presence subtle enough not to alarm parents yet unmistakable to anyone paying attention. For the first time since l







