Chapter 1 - The Silver Ring
My hand froze against the heavy blanket covering my legs.
I knew exactly one person who matched that terrifying description.
It was my younger brother, Julian.
He had worn a heavy silver ring with an onyx stone since our father passed away.
He had a distinct scar near his left ear from a childhood accident.
And he had absolute, unrestricted access to my entire estate.
I stared at the three-year-old girl sitting on my expensive mattress.
My mind violently rejected the information she had just delivered.
Julian was my blood, my second-in-command, and the only person I trusted in the criminal underworld.
But the details were far too specific for a child to simply invent.
I slowly lowered my laptop and set it on the nightstand.
I asked Lily if she was absolutely sure about the scar.
She nodded her head with complete innocence.
She said the man always stood by my bed, holding a small black box, waiting until my eyes closed.
A cold wave of pure dread washed over my chest.
I had spent millions on doctors, sleep studies, and experimental medications.
I thought my brain was fundamentally broken.
But someone had been actively destroying my sanity night after night.
I told Lily to stay exactly where she was.
I reached into the hidden drawer of my nightstand and pulled out a loaded handgun.
I slipped out of my bedroom and walked silently down the dark, marble hallway.
I needed to check the master security terminal in my private study.
If Julian was entering my room, the hidden hallway cameras would prove it.
I opened the heavy oak door of my study and approached the glowing monitors.
I scrubbed the video footage back to the previous night at two in the morning.
The hallway outside my bedroom appeared completely empty.
But then I noticed a tiny, flickering anomaly in the bottom corner of the screen.
The digital timecode on the camera was skipping backwards every ten seconds.
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Someone had hacked my billion-dollar security grid to run a flawless, continuous loop.
Suddenly, I heard the faint sound of glass shattering coming from the first floor.
