Chapter 14 - The Matriarch's Warning
Infiltrating the brutal, maximum-security federal penitentiary took every single ounce of Ethan's former underworld connections.
We used highly sophisticated forged credentials to pass as elite legal counsel, leaving our precious daughter securely hidden in a heavily fortified underground safehouse with a heavily armed former associate Ethan trusted with his life.
I felt absolutely sick to my stomach leaving Lily behind, but bringing her into a federal prison was a deadly risk we simply could not take.
Victoria Vance looked absolutely pathetic sitting behind the thick, smudged bulletproof glass of the visitor's booth.
Her luxurious furs and flawless diamonds were completely replaced by a faded, scratchy orange jumpsuit.
Her striking blue eyes were sunken and deeply bruised with extreme exhaustion, but they still flickered with a sharp, highly manipulative intelligence.
She picked up the heavy plastic receiver with violently trembling hands and offered a twisted, bitter smile that made my skin crawl with complete revulsion.
She quickly confirmed our absolute worst fears without any hesitation.
Alistair Vance was incredibly alive, and he was dying from a highly aggressive, genetically inherited terminal illness.
The massive shadow trust he had illegally built decades ago was completely locked behind a highly advanced biometric security system.
The system strictly required the living DNA of a third-generation Vance heir to authorize any massive global wealth transfers.
Julian was dead, Ethan had permanently burned off his fingerprints and altered his DNA markers with radiation to escape, leaving little Lily as the absolute only viable biological key left in the entire world.
Victoria leaned aggressively against the thick glass, her breath fogging the clear surface as she delivered her final, terrifying warning.
She told us that the ruthless nurse tracking us was actually Alistair’s illegitimate daughter, Clara, trained since birth to be an emotionless, highly lethal ghost.
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Clara did not just want Lily for the billions of dollars; she wanted to brutally extract her bone marrow to save their monstrous father, a highly invasive procedure that a tiny toddler would absolutely never survive.
Victoria coldly told Ethan that he had exactly twenty-four hours to kill his father, or his father would undoubtedly butcher his daughter.
