Chapter 2: Shadow in the Light
In the private study on the third floor of the estate, away from the roaring party below, Victoria closed the double oak doors and locked them. The room was dark, lit only by the amber glow of the city skyline through the floor-to-ceiling windows.
She pulled off her diamond earrings and tossed them onto the mahogany desk. Opening her phone, she dialed a single unlisted number.
"Is the server wipe complete?" she asked without greeting.
"Eighty percent," a low, gravelly voice replied through the speaker. Marcus, her head of logistics, sounded exhausted. "Victoria, if Julian's legal team catches wind of the transfer before midnight, they'll freeze all secondary accounts. You're walking on thin glass."
"Julian thinks he's fighting a corporate takeover," Victoria said, walking over to the safe behind the oil painting. She entered the combination: six numbers representing the date her father had been forced out of the firm thirty years ago. "He doesn't realize this isn't about stock value. It never was."
"And the boy?" Marcus asked softly after a brief pause. "The kid from the diner?"
May you like
Victoria’s hand paused on the safe handle. The memory hit her with surprising force—the 8-year-old boy in the scuffed sneakers, holding that old faded photograph of Jax. The threads of their lives were far more interconnected than Julian could ever comprehend.
"Keep him safe," Victoria said quieted, her tone softening for the first time all evening. "He's the only innocent piece left on this board."
