Chapter 2: Stolen Echoes**
Before Julian could reach them, Victoria signaled two broad-shouldered private guards. Claire was seized by the elbows, pulled back from Leo with swift, calculated force. Leo screamed, kicking at the air, his polished dress shoes scraping against the dance floor before Victoria snatched him into a suffocating, possessive embrace. "Do not make a scene in front of our investors, Julian," Victoria hissed, dragging the boy toward the private corridors. Julian stared at Claire as the guards escorted her down the service stairs toward the kitchen exit.
In the chill of the autumn night behind the estate, the heavy kitchen door slammed shut behind her. Claire stood on the gravel alleyway, her breathing ragged, her hands trembling with a rage she had suppressed for half a decade. She pulled a worn silver locket from beneath her collar—an heirloom identical to the tiny engraving Leo wore around his neck. They had told her he died at birth. Julian’s mother had paid the doctors, handed the baby to a sterile nursery, and paid Julian’s new society bride to pretend he was their own miracle. But Claire was no longer the frightened teenager they had exiled to the state line.
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