CHAPTER 5 THE SNIPER REMOVED HER MASK—AND DAMON CAME FACE TO FACE WITH THE WOMAN WHO HAD BEEN DECLARED DEAD FOR TWENTY YEARS
Gunfire stopped.
Smoke drifted through the warehouse.
The hooded sniper climbed down from the catwalk with calm, deliberate steps.
Every armed mercenary backed away.
Not because she pointed a rifle at them...
But because they recognized her.
She lowered her hood.
Damon felt the air leave his lungs.
"No..."
It was impossible.
The woman standing before him looked almost exactly like the photographs that had once hung in his childhood home.
Silver streaks ran through her dark hair.
A faint scar crossed her cheek.
But those eyes...
He would never forget them.
"Mom?"
His voice broke.
The woman smiled sadly.
"Hello, Damon."
His knees nearly gave out.
"My mother died in a plane crash."
"That's what they wanted you to believe."
Adrian slowly lowered his weapon.
"I told you she was alive."
Damon looked from Adrian to the woman.
"You knew?"
Adrian nodded.
"I found her eleven months ago."
"You lied to me."
"I was protecting you."
The woman stepped closer.
"There wasn't time."
Damon's emotions exploded.
"There was twenty years!"
Tears filled her eyes.
"I spent twenty years hiding because every time I tried to come back..."
"...someone died."
Silence filled the warehouse.
She reached into her backpack and removed a worn leather journal.
"I've carried this since the night I disappeared."
She handed it to Damon.
Inside were handwritten entries from his father.
Page after page described Project Genesis.
Illegal genetic experiments.
Bribed government officials.
Missing children.
Hidden laboratories.
And finally...
One sentence written in shaky handwriting.
If anything happens to me, never let Genesis take my grandchildren. They carry the final evidence.
Damon's hands shook.
"My father tried to stop them..."
His mother nodded.
"He realized too late what he'd helped create."
Just then, a weak cry echoed from the cradle.
The newborn boy had awakened.
She gently picked him up.
The baby immediately stopped crying the moment she held him.
A tiny smile appeared on her face.
"He has your father's eyes."
Suddenly...
A shrill alarm echoed throughout the warehouse.
Adrian checked a tracking device hidden beneath the cradle.
His expression changed instantly.
"Oh no..."
Damon looked at him.
"What?"
"They found us."
"Who?"
Adrian slowly turned the screen toward him.
Dozens of blinking red dots were rapidly closing in from every direction.
Helicopters.
Armored vehicles.
Attack teams.
More than one hundred operatives.
This wasn't a rescue mission.
It was an extermination.
Then Damon's phone vibrated.
A live video call.
On the screen...
Sylvie was still in her hospital room.
But she wasn't alone.
A masked man stood behind her with a gun pressed against her head.
He smiled into the camera.
"You have one hour."
The gun clicked.
"Bring me all three children..."
"...or your ex-wife dies first."
The call ended.
Damon looked at the sleeping baby in his mother's arms.
Then toward the warehouse doors surrounded by enemies.
For the first time in his life...
The billionaire realized that no amount of money could buy the one thing he needed now—
Time.
END OF CHAPTER 5...
May you like
Damon had found his mother, uncovered a decades-old conspiracy, and reunited with his missing son...
But saving Sylvie would require risking everything he had left.
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