Chapter 12 - The Shadow of Bellevue
Adrian pulled me away from the window, his voice turning into an absolute command. “Thomas! Get Mia into the panic room now!”
“Adrian, what is happening?” I demanded, my hands shaking uncontrollably as the building's emergency sirens began to wail. “Who is doing this?”
“Damon Kane,” Adrian growled, pulling a heavy silver pistol from his desk drawer. “My father’s illegitimate firstborn. The man my family buried in offshore records twenty years ago to protect our stock value. He’s back to claim the legacy—and he’s allied himself with Julian.”
Within minutes, private security guards flooded the apartment, but the digital lockdown systems were failing one by one. Someone with executive override codes was wiping the building’s defenses from the inside.
Adrian dragged me into his private vault room, locking the heavy steel doors behind us. “Clara, look at me,” he pleaded, holding my face in his warm hands. “Damon isn't targeting Blackwell & Reed just for money. He was the secret investor behind Vanguard. He manipulated Julian five years ago to get to you.”
“Why me?” I sobbed, confusion tearing through my brain. “I was just a junior marketing intern six years ago!”
“Because of Bellevue Hospital,” Adrian confessed, his eyes swimming with guilt. “Six years ago, when your daughter was born, my father was dying of heart failure. He funded a top-secret genetic research trial at Bellevue. Mia’s biological father wasn't just Julian—Julian was paid by my father to act as a surrogate donor for a high-concept genetic inheritance trust!”
My breath caught in my throat. The ground seemed to vanish beneath me.
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“Mia... isn't Julian’s biological daughter?” I whispered, the world turning completely upside down.
“No,” Adrian said softly, a tear slipping down his cheek. “Mia is my brother Damon’s daughter. She is the direct blood heir to the entire Kane estate—and Damon has come to take his child back.”
