Chapter 3: A Hidden Clue
While checking on Lily at dawn, Julian noticed something sticking out from the small pocket of her floral dress. It was a folded piece of yellowed paper, slightly crumpled.
He carefully pulled it out, trying not to disturb her sleep. Unfolding it under the soft amber light of the bedside lamp, his stomach twisted.
It wasn't a child's drawing. It was a handwritten note in faded fountain-pen ink: “If you are reading this, the debt of the Vance family remains unpaid. Look to the foundations.”
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Julian felt a cold shiver run down his spine. The handwriting belonged to his grandfather, Silas Vance. Silas had been a ruthlessly successful industrialist, but rumors always trailed his fortune—rumors of stolen blueprints, ruined business partners, and broken lives.
Lily hadn't locked herself in by accident. She had been searching for something, or someone had lured her to that vault.
