📜 CHAPTER 8: The Ghost of Makati
Two years passed. The ashes of Doña Elena’s letter had long been swept away, and I had completely cemented my status as the undisputed queen of Villareal Prime Holdings. I thought the past was buried deep under six feet of concrete.
Until the morning of our annual international shareholders' meeting.
I was standing at the head of the boardroom table on the 47th floor, presenting a multi-billion-peso tech acquisition, when the heavy oak doors were pushed open.
A man stepped inside. He was wearing an impeccably tailored, midnight-blue Tom Ford suit. His hair was slicked back, his posture commanding, and his face—though bearing a sharp, rugged scar across the left cheekbone—was hauntingly familiar.
The entire boardroom went dead silent. Several older directors gasped, dropping their pens.
It was Adrian.
But it couldn't be. Adrian was supposed to be serving a twenty-year sentence in a maximum-security prison. He was supposed to be penniless, nameless, and broken.
"Apologies for the interruption, CEO Lucia," the man said, his voice deep, smooth, and completely devoid of the frantic madness he had shown two years ago. He smiled, but his eyes were like liquid ice. "But as the proxy representative of Apex Global Syndicate, which recently acquired 35% of your public shares... I believe I have a right to a seat at this table."
"Adrian..." I whispered, my mask of calm slipping for a fraction of a second.
"Adrian is dead, Lucia. You legally erased him, remember?" He walked over, pulling out the chair directly opposite me at the far end of the table. He sat down, crossing his legs with absolute arrogance. "My legal name is now Andrew Vance. And I’m here to take back my home."
After the meeting forcefully adjourned, I locked the boardroom doors, leaving only the two of us inside.
"How are you out?" I hissed, slamming my palms onto the table.
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Andrew—Adrian—leaned back, laughing softly. "Did you really think a few corrupt prison guards couldn't be bought? Julian took the fall for the embezzlement in exchange for a massive offshore payout. And as for the assault charge? Bianca signed an affidavit admitting she provoked the attack under your payroll. I’ve spent the last two years in Singapore rebuilding an empire under a new identity, Lucia. And I discovered something very interesting before I left."
He leaned forward, his eyes locking onto mine with predatory intensity. "I know about the fake DNA report. I know the baby was mine. And I know my grandmother set me up."
