Chapter 1: The Rescue and the Vow
The cold, damp air of the alley was replaced by the frantic wail of sirens.
Nathan didn’t wait for morning. Within ten minutes of finding his sister, his private security team and personal physician were rushing through the crumbling doorway. He carried Emily himself, her weight terrifyingly light against his chest. Lucy held his coat tightly around her shoulders, her small hand grasping her younger brother’s, leading the bewildered children out of the darkness.
At the private hospital, the sterile white lights were a harsh contrast to the shadows they had lived in. Emily was immediately taken to the ICU. The doctor’s face was grim. "Severe malnutrition, untreated pneumonia, and utter exhaustion. Another week, Nathan… and you would have been burying her for real."
Nathan’s jaw tightened so hard it ached.
While the nurses bathed the children and dressed them in warm, clean hospital gowns, Nathan sat in the hallway. He pulled out his phone and made a single call to his chief financial investigator.
"I need everything on Victoria," Nathan’s voice was lethal, stripped of all its usual corporate polish. "Every bank record, every legal document she filed after my father’s death. She forged a death certificate. She stole my sister’s shares."
"Sir, if she did that, she’s looking at decades in federal prison," the investigator replied, stunned.
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"I don't just want her in prison," Nathan whispered, watching Lucy through the glass window as she cautiously took a bite of a warm chocolate chip cookie. "I want to take everything she ever cared about. Just like she did to us."
Inside the room, Lucy looked up and caught his eye. She didn't hide the cookie. She smiled, a real, unburdened smile. Nathan smiled back, but in his heart, a war had just begun.
