Chapter 6
Julian stared at the photograph in his hand, the world around him dissolving into a dull, muffled hum. The ink of David’s handwriting blurred slightly under the harsh light of the crystal chandelier, but the words burned into his retinas with absolute clarity: You thought you buried the twin, Julian. But I saved her.
Elena snatched the photograph from his unresisting fingers, her eyes scanning the image before darting up to meet her husband's pale, haunted face. The light blue dress she wore suddenly seemed like a shroud. She backed away from him as if he were a poisonous snake, her breath hitching in her throat.
"A twin?" Elena whispered, her voice cracking with a devastation that cut deeper than any physical wound. "You told me she didn't survive the complications. You held me while I cried for a child that never even got a name. You lied to me?"
"Elena, listen to me," Julian reached out a hand, his tattooed forearm straining as he tried to bridge the terrifying chasm that had just opened between them. "I did it to protect you. The men I was dealing with back then... they would have used her to get to my empire. I had to hide her."
"You hid her with Ethan?" Elena screamed, the restrained emotion finally shattering as tears spilled freely down her cheeks. "Maya said Ethan was here! Is that who he was looking for? The sister you stole away?"
Marcus stood silently beside them, the traitorous guard watching the domestic tragedy unfold with detached clinical interest. He tapped the edge of the manila folder against his thigh.
"Ethan wasn't looking for Maya today, Mr. Vance," Marcus interjected smoothly. "He was looking for the girl in the basement vault. The one you locked away when she started asking why her mother lived upstairs."
Julian’s head snapped toward Marcus, his jaw tightening into a knot of pure lethal fury. He lunged forward, grabbing Marcus by the lapels of his black suit and slamming him against the marble pillar with enough force to crack the stone.
"If you touch her," Julian growled, his face inches from the guard's, "I will tear this entire estate down to the dirt with my bare hands."
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Marcus didn't flinch. Instead, he smiled, reaching into his jacket pocket and pulling out a heavy iron key with a jagged brass head. He dangled it lazily between them.
"You can threaten me all you want, Julian," Marcus whispered. "But the vault timer was set the moment Ethan walked through the front door. You have exactly ten minutes before the oxygen supply in the sub-level runs out."
