Chapter 4 - The Ultimatum

Elena didn't flinch, though her fingernails dug painfully into the palms of her hands.

"Leo was crying for his specialized formula," Elena lied, keeping her voice steady and low. "The pantry key was missing from the kitchen rack. The head housekeeper told me the backup supply was kept in the basement storage room next to the wine cellar. I must have swiped the wrong reader in the dark."

Marcus stared at her for five agonizing seconds. The silence between them was thick enough to choke on.

"The basement safe doesn't hold formula, Elena," Marcus murmured, his tone eerily polite. "It holds every financial crime my late father committed, along with the sealed adoption papers for the boy sleeping in that crib."

Elena felt the cold sweat running down the center of her back. "I didn't open any safe, Mr. Vance. The red light flashed, and I went back upstairs."

Marcus walked over to the nursery door and paused with his hand on the brass handle. "I checked the log. The door didn't just flash red. The keypad accepted your override code."

He pulled the nursery door open, turning halfway back to meet her gaze. "Whoever gave you that override code wants to destroy this family. Be careful whose side you’re on, Elena. Victoria destroys everyone she touches, but I assure you... I am far less forgiving."

With that, he stepped out and pulled the door shut, leaving Elena standing alone in the dim glow of the nightlight.

Elena waited until his footsteps faded down the hall before pulling out her phone. It was 11:45 PM.

Fifteen minutes until midnight.

She reached under the bottom lining of her duffel bag hidden beneath the nursery dresser, pulling out a slim, leather-bound notebook with yellowed edges. The ledger contained names, dates, offshore bank transfers, and a handwritten medical release from a private clinic in Chicago dated eleven months ago—signed not by Victoria Vance, but by a surrogate whose name had been violently scratched out with black ink.

Elena tucked the notebook into the inner lining of her heavy rain jacket, walked to the crib, and pressed a soft kiss to Leo’s warm forehead.

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"I won't let them take you," she whispered.

She slipped out the nursery’s side terrace door, moving quietly into the pouring rain down the exterior iron fire escape.