Chapter 1 - THE GATES CLOSED
“Lock every gate.”
My words traveled through the phone before Sienna could reach me.
Marcus Reed, the head of my private security team, did not ask for an explanation.
“Understood.”
A metallic click echoed from the phone.
Beyond the tall windows, the estate’s iron gates began sliding shut.
The music in the ballroom continued for another ten seconds.
Then the speakers went silent.
The laughter died with them.
I carried Clara toward the main staircase while relatives and guests emerged from the ballroom holding crystal glasses and half-finished plates.
My mother, Helena Vale, stood beneath the chandelier wearing a silver gown I had never seen before.
A diamond bracelet glittered around her wrist.
It had been purchased with my corporate card three days earlier.
My cousin Damian stepped away from the bar.
He had been serving champagne from bottles reserved for an investor dinner that had been canceled months ago.
“Julian?”
His face lost its color.
“You’re supposed to be in Singapore.”
“I was.”
Helena recovered faster than everyone else.
She approached me with a practiced smile.
“My darling, what a wonderful surprise.”
Clara stiffened in my arms.
I felt it.
My mother noticed it too.
Her smile tightened.
“Put Clara down,” Helena said.
“She has caused enough embarrassment tonight.”
Every head in the room turned toward us.
I looked at the woman who had spent years telling the world that family loyalty mattered above everything.
“What did you say?”
Helena lifted her chin.
“We hosted a small celebration for Damian’s promotion.”
“A promotion I never approved.”
Damian cleared his throat.
“We believed the board had already finalized it.”
“I am chairman of that board.”
Sienna hurried into the ballroom.
“Julian, please don’t make a scene.”
I looked down at Clara’s blistered hands.
“You already made the scene.”
Marcus entered through the front doors with six security officers.
He was fifty-one, broad-shouldered, and calm in the way only truly dangerous men could afford to be.
“The perimeter is secured,” he said.
“No one has left the property.”
Several guests began protesting.
I raised one hand.
“You are not prisoners.”
I looked toward Damian.
“But nobody connected to my family leaves until every company-owned device, access card, and financial document is secured.”
Damian’s eyes shifted toward the hallway leading to my office.
Marcus noticed.
So did I.
“Check my study,” I ordered.
Two officers moved immediately.
Helena stepped between them and the hallway.
“You cannot humiliate us in front of guests.”
“This is my home.”
Her voice became colder.
“This house belongs to the Vale family.”
I turned toward Clara.
Her cheek rested against my shoulder.
Her lips had gone pale.
“No,” I said.
“This house belongs to my wife and me.”
Clara’s eyes fluttered.
Then her body went limp in my arms.
Before I could call her name, Marcus’s voice came through the radio.
“Sir, we found someone inside your office.”
May you like
A pause followed.
“He was trying to destroy the security server.”
