Chapter 4 - GHOSTS IN THE INK
The voice from the radio echoed in the quiet, stifling air of the underground nursery. Sebastian’s breath caught in his throat. Eleven years. Eleven years of visiting a marble headstone, bringing white roses, carrying the agonizing guilt of surviving the crash that supposedly took his sister's life.
"Genevieve," Sebastian breathed, his voice a dangerous, low rumble.
"I wouldn't stay down there, Sebastian," the voice crackled through Marcus's radio. "The heating vents are wired to the estate’s main gas line. You have about three minutes before that lodge becomes an oven. Bring my niece outside."
Sebastian didn’t hesitate. "Move!" he barked at Marcus. He hauled Lily into his arms, wrapping his coat tighter around her. He sprinted up the stone stairs, his powerful legs carrying them out of the basement just as a sickening hiss of gas began to fill the lower chamber.
They burst into the freezing winter night. Behind them, a muffled thump shook the earth, and the windows of the old hunting lodge blew out in a shower of shattered glass and orange flame. The blast wave pushed Sebastian forward, but he stayed on his feet, curling his body to ensure Lily didn't feel a single shard of debris.
Breathing heavily, Sebastian turned to watch the lodge burn.
Answer One, Open Two. Genevieve was undeniably alive, and she had orchestrated the chaos tonight. But why try to kill him? And why demand Lily?
Sebastian set Lily down gently behind the armored bulk of his SUV. "Are you okay, little bird?" he asked, checking her face for scratches.
Lily nodded, her big blue eyes wide but surprisingly brave. She reached into her pocket. "Daddy, the lady in the house... the one who chased me. She dropped this when you hit her."
Lily handed Sebastian a heavy, gold pocket watch. It was engraved with a familiar crest—the Stellan family crest.
Sebastian snapped it open. Inside wasn't a clock face. It was a miniature, folded legal document. He pulled it out, his eyes scanning the fine print in the glow of the burning lodge. It was a birth certificate.
Sebastian’s heart stopped.
Lily's mother, Rose, had died in childbirth six years ago. Or so he had been told. The certificate in his hand bore Lily’s name, her exact time of birth, and his name as the father.
But under the mother’s name, it didn't say Rose. It said Genevieve Stellan.
The world tilted on its axis. He stared at his daughter, his mind violently rejecting the information. It was impossible. It was a forgery. It was a sick, twisted lie designed to break him.
"Boss," Marcus yelled, pointing down the snow-covered driveway.
May you like
A pair of headlights cut through the blizzard. A sleek black town car was idling at the estate gates. The back window rolled down, revealing the scarred, unmistakable face of his sister.
Genevieve looked at him, her eyes filled with a decade of poison. She didn't yell. She simply held up a detonator, pressed a button, and the gates slammed shut, locking Sebastian inside the burning compound.
