Chapter 2 - Shadows of the Past
"Find them. I don't care if you have to tear down every building in New York City. Find those four girls before midnight!"
Michael roared inside his penthouse office, slamming his fist onto the mahogany desk. Across from him stood Vance Croft, the top private investigator on the East Coast and a man who had worked for the Harrington family for two decades.
"Michael, calm down," Vance urged softly, setting a thick, dusty manila folder on the desk. "You haven't mentioned Elena Vance’s name in ten years. Not since..."
"Not since I framed her... since I allowed my mother and Victoria to ruin her!" Michael cut in, his voice cracking with immense guilt.
Ten years ago, Michael Harrington was a young, ruthless heir striving to prove himself to his formidable mother, Eleanor Harrington. Elena Vance had been a brilliant young architect working for Harrington Group—and the love of Michael’s life. But Eleanor insisted that Elena was a middle-class gold-digger unsuited for the Harrington bloodline.
When $50 million vanished from the firm's offshore accounts, planted evidence pointed directly at Elena. Blended with forged photos showing her in compromising positions with a rival corporate spy, Michael’s blind ambition and rage took over. He didn't just fire her—he blacklisted her across every architectural firm in the nation, seized her assets, and evicted her into a freezing blizzard with nothing but the clothes on her back.
He had spent the last decade believing he was the victim of a grand betrayal. But looking at the ultrasound photo now, the terrifying truth began to unspool.
"Vance," Michael whispered, his hands trembling. "What happened to her after she left?"
Vance swallowed hard, hesitating before opening the folder. "It’s bad, Michael. After you blacklisted her, she couldn't get a job anywhere—not even flipping burgers. She lived in women's shelters across Brooklyn. Nine years ago, she gave birth to identical quadruplet girls in a free clinic during a power outage."
"Four..." Michael choked out. "She raised four babies alone in poverty?"
"She refused every form of charity, taking odd jobs, scrubbing floors at midnight, cleaning subway cars," Vance revealed, his eyes heavy with sympathy. "But Michael... there’s something worse."
"What?"
"Elena went missing three days ago. She disappeared from a shelter in Queens without a trace. The shelter director said four men in unmarked black SUVs snatched her in broad daylight. The girls have been living on the streets alone since Tuesday, selling flowers to buy bread."
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Michael felt the air sucked out of his lungs. Black SUVs.
In New York, only one family maintained a fleet of custom black armored Cadillacs with tinted windows: The Harrington Estate.
