Chapter 1
The sleek black luxury SUV idled quietly against the sun-bleached marble curb of the grand hotel, its tinted windows mirroring the blinding afternoon glare. Julian stood outside in his dark gray tailored suit, the open collar revealing a tight pulse hammering at the hollow of his throat. He looked at the seven-year-old boy in the light blue polo shirt leaning out the tinted window, holding a newborn baby wrapped tightly in a light beige blanket.
Julian’s intense expression hardened, his jaw tightening into a rigid line as he gripped the polished door handle.
“You me up first,” the boy said, his voice trembling slightly with a child's innocent confusion mixed with deep-seated exhaustion.
Julian pulled the heavy door open wider, the hinges making a faint, high-pitched squeak against the ambient hum of the busy city street. He reached inside with careful, practiced strength, lifting both the fragile boy and the tiny, sleeping newborn out of the suffocating interior of the vehicle.
“We shouldn’t have been in there, Julian,” the boy whispered, burying his face briefly against the dark fabric of Julian’s shoulder.
“I know,” Julian replied, his voice dropping into a low, controlled register that masked a rising tide of fury.
“They locked us up because they said I was hungry,” the boy added, looking up with wide, tear-rimmed eyes that held too much knowledge for a seven-year-old.
Julian froze for a fraction of a second, his dark fade haircut catching the harsh noon light. The words echoed in his mind, striking a nerve that had been raw since the tragedy began. He set the children down gently behind a concrete pillar, shielding them from the chaotic foot traffic outside the hotel entrance. A stylish couple in matching beige skirt suits and linen jackets walked past, laughing carelessly about an upcoming business merger, utterly oblivious to the trauma resting feet away from them.
Julian straightened up, his eyes locking onto the man in the light beige suit. Without a single word of warning, Julian grabbed an unattended metal luggage cart loaded with expensive leather suitcases and violently rammed it straight into the stylish man, sending him crashing hard onto the stone floor with a sickening thud.
The woman shrieked, dropping her designer handbag as glass shattered nearby. Julian stepped over the groaning man, towering above him with a dark, furious expression, his jaw clenching so hard muscles ticked along his cheek.
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“What's the real reason you did that to those two children?” Julian demanded, his voice slicing through the sudden silence of the courtyard.
The stylish man lay flat on the stone floor, looking upward in shock and disorientation with his eyes wide open in the bright sunlight, coughing out dust and blood as he whispered a name that made Julian’s blood run completely cold.
