Chapter 4 - THE SECRET THEY BURIED
Lucien stared at Adrian.
“No.”
The word came out quietly.
Almost like a warning.
“My daughter is not a key.”
Adrian didn’t look away.
“I know what you want to believe.”
“No.”
Lucien stepped forward.
“I know what I believe.”
Ava looked between them.
“Daddy?”
Lucien immediately softened.
“I’m here.”
But inside, something was breaking.
Because every person in this room was talking about his daughter like she was an object.
A weapon.
A plan.
Charles walked closer.
“You need to understand.”
Lucien turned.
“You don’t get to explain anything to me.”
Charles ignored the anger.
“When Ava was born, there was a problem.”
Lucien’s face changed.
“What problem?”
Charles looked at Adrian.
Adrian answered.
“Someone tried to take her.”
Silence.
Lucien remembered.
The hospital.
The security alerts.
The strange calls.
The things Rebecca told him were just paranoia.
They weren’t.
“They knew something about her,” Adrian said.
“What?”
Charles closed his eyes.
“She inherited information.”
Lucien almost laughed.
“That’s impossible.”
“No.”
Charles looked serious.
“It’s very possible.”
Adrian pulled out a file.
Inside were medical records.
Photos.
Documents.
Lucien opened it.
Then stopped.
Because the first page had his name.
And Charles’s signature.
“You signed this?”
Charles didn’t answer.
“You signed a contract involving my daughter?”
“I was protecting her.”
Lucien threw the file down.
“You keep using that excuse.”
Suddenly, Ava spoke.
“Daddy.”
Everyone turned.
She pointed at the file.
“I saw that picture before.”
Lucien looked at her.
“What picture?”
She touched the paper.
“The man.”
Lucien looked down.
A photograph.
A stranger.
A man standing beside Ava’s hospital bed.
Lucien had never seen him before.
“Who is he?”
Nobody answered.
Then the room’s security monitor turned on.
A live feed appeared.
The stranger from the picture was standing outside the building.
Alive.
Watching them.
And smiling.
The screen flickered.
A message appeared.
YOU HAVE SOMETHING THAT BELONGS TO ME.
Then another line appeared.
BRING ME THE GIRL.
Lucien looked at Charles.
“You know him.”
Charles didn’t deny it.
“He was the reason we disappeared.”
Lucien’s eyes narrowed.
“Who is he?”
Charles whispered:
“The man who taught me how to destroy people.”
The lights went out.
May you like
And when they came back—
Ava was gone.
