Chapter 2 - The Stolen Blueprint

The federal agents shoved my stepfather forcefully against the cold marble wall.

They slapped heavy steel handcuffs onto the wrists that had worked so hard to raise me.

"Do not fight them, Julian!" Hector yelled as I tried to pull the agents away.

I watched in absolute horror as they dragged him out of the university building.

My mother, Elena, was waiting in the lobby with a bouquet of cheap flowers.

She dropped the flowers onto the floor and screamed my stepfather's name.

The agents ignored her cries and shoved Hector into the back of a black armored vehicle.

I held my weeping mother in my arms as the sirens faded into the distance.

"Mom, who is Hector really?" I demanded, needing the truth immediately.

Elena sobbed uncontrollably, refusing to look me in the eyes.

"He is a good man who gave up everything to protect you," she whispered through her tears.

I realized she was not going to give me the answers I desperately needed.

I left her with a family friend and rushed back to our tiny, cramped apartment.

I went straight into Hector’s small bedroom and pulled out his heavy, rusted metal toolbox.

I threw the wrenches and hammers onto the floor, searching for any hidden clues.

At the very bottom of the box, hidden under a piece of loose felt, was a locked metal compartment.

I smashed the lock open with a heavy hammer.

Inside was a pristine, meticulously drawn architectural blueprint of the Metro City Tower.

It was the exact same building I was analyzing for my PhD thesis on structural failures.

The blueprint had a massive red stamp across the front that read "Classified."

I flipped the heavy paper over and saw a handwritten note attached to the back.

The note simply read: "If Julian ever discovers the flaw, Richard Sterling will kill him."

My blood ran completely cold as I read the name out loud.

Richard Sterling was the billionaire owner of the city's largest construction empire.

More importantly, Richard Sterling was my biological father who abandoned me twenty-five years ago.

Before I could even process this horrifying revelation, my cell phone began to ring.

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I answered the unknown number with a trembling hand.

"If you want to see your stepfather alive again, come to the Sterling Tower roof right now," a cold voice threatened.