Chapter 5 - THE SHADOW IN THE EAST WINGDeep in the subterranean basement of the Grayhaven docks, miles away from Blackwood Estate, a glowing computer screen flickered in the dark.
A pair of cold, scarred hands typed rapidly on a mechanical keyboard. Through the desktop speakers, the audio recording from the hidden bug played back clearly: "...now let's get that shoulder properly looked after. And then, you are going to tell me everything my grandfather left in your care."
A low, gravelly laugh echoed in the empty warehouse.
"So, the old man's secrets didn't die with him," a scarred man muttered to himself, stepping into the dim light. It was Victor Vance—the exiled cousin of Ronan Blackwood, a man who had spent five years in a maximum-security prison waiting for the exact moment Ronan’s guard would drop. And it dropped because of a maid.
Victor picked up an encrypted satellite phone and dialed a familiar number.
"The girl," Victor said into the receiver when the line connected. "The plus-size kitchen maid holding the Blackwood encryption keys. Find out everything about her past before she entered the estate. If Ronan values her that much, she is the key to cutting his throat."
Back at Blackwood Estate, unaware of the digital eye watching them, Ivy sat in the private medical office while the estate doctor disinfected the raw welt on her shoulder.
Ronan stood by the door, his arms crossed, his eyes never leaving her face.
"Does it hurt?" he asked, his voice laced with an unusual tenderness.
"I've survived worse, Mr. Blackwood," Ivy said calmly, enduring the sting of the antiseptic without a flinch. "Growing up in the Harbor House district gives you a high pain tolerance."
Ronan frowned slightly. "Harbor House? That's Vance territory. How did you end up working for my family from there?"
Ivy's hands clenched slightly in her lap. The calm, unshakeable facade cracked for just a fraction of a second—long enough for Ronan to catch it.
"Your grandfather found me," Ivy whispered, her eyes turning dark. "Or rather... he saved me from the man who runs those docks."
Ronan stiffened. The air in the room suddenly grew razor-sharp. "Who?"
Before Ivy could answer, the entire estate's lighting system flickered and died. The emergency generators kicked in three seconds later, bathing the hallways in an eerie, dim red glow.
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Simultaneously, the estate’s primary security alarm let out a piercing, rhythmic screech.
Code Red. Perimeter breach at the west gate.
