Chapter 16 - The Blueprint of BetrayalHelena led them through a concealed panel behind the massive stone fireplace in the library, down a flight of spiral stone stairs into a subterranean archive room that looked like a high-tech command center.
Monitors flickered to life as Helena pressed a sequence of buttons on an old terminal.
"Eleanor didn't just steal money," Helena explained, pointing at a digital schematic blueprint of Vance Global’s corporate infrastructure. "She built an entire shadow empire designed to siphon corporate patents and sell them to our fiercest international competitors—specifically, the Sterling Group."
Sarah’s eyes widened. "The Sterling Group? They tried to hostile-takeover Vance Global five years ago!"
"And they almost succeeded," Helena nodded. "Eleanor was their inside agent. The reason your father’s business deals mysteriously failed, Julian, the reason our shipments were intercepted, the reason our security was breached—it was all coordinated from this very room."
Arthur studied the data streams scrolling across the monitors. His face darkened into a mask of pure fury.
"For forty years, I served this household with absolute loyalty," Arthur spoke, his voice dangerously low. "I poured the wine, I polished the silver, I stood at the door. And all the while, that wretched woman was turning the Vance legacy into a den of treason."
"She thought she had buried every trace of it," Helena said. "She left the master deed here because she thought no one would ever dare return to Blackwood Manor. But she miscalculated one crucial thing."
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Helena turned her gaze toward little Leo, who stirred peacefully against Sarah’s chest.
"She forgot that a family tree cannot be permanently uprooted as long as a new branch takes root."
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