Chapter 1 - The Secret Behind the Handshake
The silence in the grand ballroom was so heavy you could hear the flicker of the candlelight.
Billionaire Marcus Vance stared at his daughter, Clara, with wide, terrified eyes. Clara hadn’t stood on her own two feet since the horrific car crash four years ago—the crash that took her mother’s life and left her spine paralyzed beyond medical repair. Top surgeons from London, New York, and Tokyo had all signed the same paper: Permanently Disabled.
Yet here she was, trembling, pale, but standing—all because a dirt-streaked boy in torn trousers was holding her hands.
"Clara..." Marcus stumbled forward, his voice cracking. "How... who is this boy?"
"He's the boy from my dreams, Father," Clara whispered, tear streaks cutting through her powder-dusted cheeks. "The one who promised he’d come when I was ready."
The crowd erupted into furious whispers. “Is this a staged stunt?” “Who let a beggar into the Vance Family Gala?” “Look at his hands—they’re covered in strange scars!”
Security guards rushed forward, batons drawn. "Sir! Should we remove the intruder?"
"Touch him, and I sit back down forever," Clara commanded, her voice suddenly ringing with an authority no one knew she possessed.
The boy, whose name was Leo, didn't flinch at the armed guards. He slowly let go of Clara's hands, stepping back gently. The second his skin lost contact with hers, Clara’s knees buckled. She gasped and collapsed—not onto the cold floor, but back into her wheelchair, gasping as if she had just surfaced from underwater.
Marcus rushed to her side, but as he looked up to confront the boy, Leo was already retreating into the shadows near the balcony exit.
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Before disappearing into the rainy night, Leo turned back and locked eyes with Marcus.
"Check your wife's old journal, Mr. Vance," Leo murmured, his voice hauntingly calm. "Chapter seven. Before it's too late."
