CHAPTER 4 — The Traitor in the Bloodline
The mansion descended into chaos.
Security guards sprinted through smoke-filled corridors.
Servants screamed as sprinklers activated overhead.
Some guards rushed outside toward the explosion.
Others raced upstairs.
Exactly as the attackers had planned.
Within seconds...
Vincent's carefully organized security network collapsed.
"They're dividing your men," Elena said.
"Now comes the real attack."
Almost on cue—
The electricity died.
Darkness swallowed the mansion.
Only emergency lights glowed faintly along the hallways.
Vincent quietly followed Elena through a hidden passage behind the library fireplace.
"You know about this tunnel?" he asked.
She nodded.
"I've known since my second week here."
He stared at her in disbelief.
"Then you could have killed me a hundred times."
"I could have."
"But I didn't."
They emerged inside an old underground wine cellar beneath the mansion.
Dust covered the walls.
Centuries-old bottles lined wooden shelves.
Elena knelt beside an iron cabinet hidden behind stacked crates.
She entered a six-digit code.
Click.
Inside were dozens of sealed folders.
Photographs.
Hard drives.
Financial records.
Everything Vincent had collected over thirty years.
Evidence capable of destroying politicians, judges, crime bosses—even entire governments.
Vincent frowned.
"I never told anyone this vault existed."
Elena looked at him sadly.
"You didn't."
"But someone else did."
She handed him one photograph.
Vincent's hands began trembling.
The picture showed Marcus...
Standing beside Vincent's wife Isabella...
Shaking hands with Tony—the longtime bodyguard...
And another man whose face Vincent recognized immediately.
His personal attorney.
Four people.
The four people he had trusted most.
All meeting together.
Secretly.
The photo was dated...
Eight months ago.
Before Marcus had even begun acting differently.
Before any warning signs.
"This wasn't sudden," Elena whispered.
"They've been building this betrayal for nearly a year."
Vincent clenched the photograph until it crumpled.
"They want my empire."
Elena slowly shook her head.
"No."
"They already have your empire."
"They came tonight for something much more valuable."
Vincent looked confused.
"What could possibly be worth more than everything I've built?"
Elena pulled the final folder from the cabinet.
She opened it carefully.
Inside was an old hospital birth certificate.
Vincent froze.
Father's Name: Unknown
Mother's Name: Isabella Romano
Date: Thirty-one years ago.
Below it...
A DNA report.
Elena whispered the sentence that shattered Vincent's world forever.
"Marcus..."
"...isn't your nephew."
A long silence filled the underground cellar.
May you like
Then she revealed the impossible truth.
"Marcus is your son."
