Chapter 22 - The Ghost of Victoria Vance
Daniel snatched the velvet-lined tray and his father's leather diary, shoving them inside Emily's canvas bag.
They sprinted through the bank's service corridors, leaving behind the smell of cordite and burning rubber.
Liam guided them through an underground parking tunnel beneath the city center.
"Where is Sophie?" Emily cried out, panic seizing her chest like an iron fist. "Is our daughter safe?"
"Marcus took her to the armored safehouse outside upstate," Liam said breathlessly, slamming open the heavy exit door. "She is surrounded by five armed bodyguards."
They dove into the back of a blacked-out SUV waiting with the engine running in the dark alleyway.
Tires screeched as the vehicle surged into the rainy afternoon traffic.
Daniel sat in the shadows of the backseat, clutching the faded Austrian birth certificate against his chest.
"Liam, tell me the truth," Daniel said, his eyes blazing with fury and despair. "Did my father ever mention a Victoria?"
Liam looked back through the rearview mirror, his jaw tightening grimly.
"Your father took that secret to his grave, Daniel," Liam replied softly. "He made all of us swear never to look into the Vance family archives."
"What archives?" Emily asked, leaning forward with fierce determination.
"Thirty years ago, before the company went public, your grandfather had two daughters," Liam explained, swerving around a delivery truck. "Evelyn was the eldest. Victoria was the younger sister."
Daniel felt the air leave his lungs.
"My aunt," Daniel whispered in horror. "Evelyn is my aunt."
"According to official family history, Victoria drowned in Lake Geneva when she was nineteen," Liam continued, checking his side mirrors. "A tragic accident. No body was ever recovered."
"She didn't drown," Emily said, opening the leather journal with trembling fingers.
A newspaper clipping fluttered out from the yellowed pages of the journal.
It was an obituary with a photo of a young woman who looked uncannily like Sophie.
The resemblance was so stark, so undeniable, that tears sprang into Emily's eyes.
"Sophie has her eyes," Emily whispered, showing the picture to Daniel. "Look at her smile, Daniel. That's our baby."
Daniel stared at the face of the biological mother he had never known.
Beneath the clipping, his father had written a single, desperate entry in jagged fountain pen ink.
*God forgive me for what Evelyn forced me to do. Victoria is screaming behind the white walls.*
Daniel looked up, his jaw set in cold, murderous rage.
"She didn't drown," Daniel said, his voice deadly quiet. "Evelyn locked her away."
Suddenly, Liam slammed the brakes, tires shrieking on the wet asphalt.
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A massive concrete delivery truck had deliberately turned sideways, blocking both lanes of the bridge ahead.
From the back of the truck, four men with automatic rifles leaped onto the pavement, pointing straight at their windshield.
