CHAPTER 3: The Daughter Who Didn't Know She Had Become the Next Target
The television screens around the world were still replaying the dramatic footage.
A billionaire.
A burning private jet.
A loyal dog hailed as a miracle.
The media called it "The Greatest Animal Rescue Story of the Decade."
But inside Alexander Grant's mansion...
No one was celebrating.
The luxurious estate had become a fortress overnight.
Armed guards stood at every entrance.
Military drones circled overhead.
Every employee had their background checked again.
Every phone call was monitored.
Every visitor was searched.
Alexander stood silently in front of the enormous fireplace, replaying Marcus's final words in his mind.
"One brother lives..."
Those four words refused to leave him alone.
For twenty-four years, he had believed his younger brother, Ethan, had died in the fire that destroyed their childhood home.
He had attended the funeral.
He had cried beside the tiny white coffin.
He had spent decades blaming himself.
Now...
Everything he believed was beginning to fall apart.
His chief investigator, Daniel Ross, entered the room carrying an old leather folder.
"We found something."
Alexander slowly looked up.
"What is it?"
Daniel placed several yellowed documents on the table.
"They were hidden in Marcus's apartment behind a false wall."
Alexander opened the folder.
His hands immediately froze.
Inside were dozens of newspaper clippings.
Every article was about him.
Every business success.
Every interview.
Every award.
Every public appearance.
Marcus had been collecting them...
For years.
But one photograph made Alexander's blood run cold.
It showed his daughter...
Sophia.
She was only eight years old.
Standing outside her elementary school.
Someone had circled her face with a thick red marker.
Across the picture, three handwritten words appeared.
"Next after him."
Silence filled the room.
Alexander felt his heartbeat pounding inside his chest.
"When was this taken?"
Daniel swallowed.
"Fifteen years ago."
Alexander slowly sat down.
"They've been watching my family..."
"...for fifteen years."
Meanwhile...
Hundreds of miles away...
Sophia Grant knew nothing.
The twenty-six-year-old architecture professor had just finished teaching her final class of the semester.
Unlike her famous father, she hated publicity.
She refused interviews.
She avoided luxury parties.
Most of her students didn't even know she was the daughter of one of the richest men alive.
She left the university carrying only a backpack and a coffee.
As always...
She walked alone.
Across the street...
Inside a black SUV...
Someone quietly lowered a pair of binoculars.
"There she is."
Another voice replied through an earpiece.
"Do not engage."
"Not yet."
"We're waiting for confirmation."
The SUV slowly followed her.
Sophia never noticed.
But someone else did.
Across the street...
A familiar white dog stood beside a black sedan.
Rich.
His ears suddenly lifted.
His body became completely still.
He stared directly at the SUV.
His nose twitched.
Then he growled.
Low.
Dangerously.
Inside Alexander's security vehicle, one of the agents looked confused.
"What's wrong with him?"
Rich barked once.
Then jumped against the car door.
Hard.
Again.
And again.
The handler immediately understood.
"He smells something."
"What?"
"I don't know..."
"But he's never wrong."
The security convoy accelerated.
At the same moment...
The black SUV sped away.
Vanishing into traffic.
Sophia remained completely unaware...
That death had been only thirty feet away.
That evening...
Alexander embraced his daughter tighter than ever before.
Sophia laughed.
"Dad..."
"You've never hugged me this hard."
Alexander forced a smile.
"I just realized how much I've missed you."
He couldn't tell her the truth.
Not yet.
Because if Marcus had been only one piece of the puzzle...
Someone far more dangerous was still out there.
Watching.
Waiting.
Planning.
And Rich...
Had already sensed it.
Near midnight...
Rich suddenly began barking at the mansion's underground garage.
Security rushed downstairs.
Nothing appeared unusual.
Until one guard noticed something.
A black van...
Parked outside the property earlier that afternoon...
Was gone.
In its place...
A small metal box sat beneath Alexander's favorite sports car.
The bomb squad arrived minutes later.
Inside the box...
They found enough explosives to destroy half the mansion.
The timer...
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Had exactly three minutes remaining.
TO BE CONTINUED...
