THE SECRETS WE BURIED

The heavy scent of jasmine and antiseptic filled the underground nursery. Sebastian stood frozen, his large hand shielding Lily’s eyes, though the little girl buried her face into his neck anyway.

The blood on the velvet coat was dry, flaking slightly under the warm glow of the nursery lamps, but the garment itself was unmistakable. It was the exact coat his sister, Genevieve, had been wearing the night of the horrific car crash eleven years ago. The night the Stellan family burned to the ground.

"Daddy, I don't like it down here," Lily whispered, her small fingers clutching his turtleneck.

"I know, sweetheart. We won't be long," Sebastian murmured, his voice softening only for her.

He approached the crib. Beneath the coat lay a thick, leather-bound ledger. Sebastian flipped it open. It wasn't a diary; it was a meticulous record of offshore bank transfers. Millions of dollars had been siphoned from the Stellan family trust over the last decade, all routed to a dummy corporation named Orchid Holdings.

The truth hit him like a physical blow. Victoria hadn't been funding the syndicate; she had been paying extortion money.

Answer One, Open Two. The syndicate knew Genevieve's death was a lie. But who was blackmailing Victoria? And if Genevieve was alive, why was there fresh blood on her coat?

Footsteps crunched on the stone stairs behind him. Sebastian spun around, instinctively shielding Lily with his massive frame.

It was Marcus, his most trusted bodyguard. The towering man looked uneasy, his gun drawn but pointed at the floor. "Sir, you need to come back to the main house. Now."

"What did Victoria say?" Sebastian demanded.

Marcus swallowed hard. "Victoria didn't say anything, boss. She's gone. The mercenaries woke up and took her. But that's not why you need to come back."

Sebastian’s jaw clenched. "Spit it out, Marcus."

"The mercenaries didn't break in, Mr. Stellan. We just checked the security logs." Marcus looked up, his eyes filled with a terrifying realization. "Victoria invited them in. She hired them to stage a kidnapping."

Sebastian frowned, the logic fraying. "Why would she hire mercenaries to kidnap herself?"

"She didn't," Marcus said quietly. "She hired them to kidnap Lily. And when they failed, she ran."

Sebastian’s blood turned to ice. He looked down at the ledger, then at the blood-stained coat. The extortion wasn't about keeping Genevieve's survival a secret. The extortion was about paying the syndicate to find the perfect moment to take his daughter.

"Get the car," Sebastian snarled, his protective rage reigniting into an inferno. "We are tearing this city apart."