Chapter 5 - The Web of LiesThe realization shattered Adrian’s world into a thousand pieces. The girls he loved more than life itself were the biological children of the man who had just kicked him out into the storm.
He walked over to the makeshift bed where Lila and Mia were sleeping, clutching each other for warmth.
Mia opened her eyes, rubbing her sleepy face. “Daddy? Why are you crying?”
Adrian fell to his knees beside the bed. Tears streamed down his face, but as he looked into their innocent eyes, the pain dissolved into an unbreakable resolve.
It doesn’t matter whose blood runs in their veins, Adrian thought. I am their father. I am the one who held them when they cried, who read them bedtime stories, who protected them.
“Daddy is fine, baby,” Adrian whispered, kissing Mia’s forehead. “Go back to sleep.”
He turned back to Marcus, his eyes now filled with ruthless clarity. “They used these little girls as pawns. They treated them like trash. I don’t care about the money anymore, Marcus. I want Vanessa and Julian destroyed.”
“How do you want to play it?” Marcus asked.
“Vanessa wants the vault,” Adrian said, a sinister smile creeping onto his lips. “She thinks the silver locket opens the digital safe containing forty million dollars. She doesn’t know I changed the failsafe codes yesterday.”
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“What happens when she enters the wrong code?”
“The entire system auto-uploads the raw surveillance footage of her neglecting the kids and confessing to corporate fraud directly to the Federal Bureau of Investigation... and every major news outlet in the country.”
