Chapter 4
Chapter 4
Elias strapped Mia into the back of the armored SUV.
He got into the driver’s seat, his hands gripping the leather steering wheel tightly.
"Who was the man on the phone, Mia?" Elias asked softly, looking at her in the rearview mirror.
Mia swung her little legs, playing with the hem of her dress.
"He said he was your friend. He said if I saved Auntie Clara, he would take me away from Mommy."
"Did he give you a name?"
"He told me to call him Uncle Julian."
Elias slammed on the brakes. The heavy vehicle screeched to a halt on the winding mountain road.
Julian.
His older brother.
The same brother who had supposedly died in a plane crash off the coast of Monaco three years ago. The brother who was supposed to inherit the Sterling empire before his untimely death left everything to Elias.
Elias pulled his phone out, bypassing all his security chiefs, and dialed a direct, encrypted satellite line to his private intelligence broker.
"Trace the scrambled calls to Victoria's villa over the last month," Elias demanded.
"Sir, we already did," the voice on the other end replied nervously. "They bounced off heavily encrypted servers. But the origin pinged a cell tower..."
"Where?"
"Ten minutes from your current location, sir. At the Sterling Family Mausoleum."
Elias felt the air leave his lungs.
Julian wasn't just alive. He was hiding in his own grave.
Elias turned the wheel violently, the tires screaming as he reversed direction toward the old cemetery.
He left the engine running when they arrived, pulling a heavy Glock from the glove compartment.
He kicked open the iron gates of the family crypt.
But the marble tomb bearing Julian's name was completely shattered.
Inside, there was no casket.
Instead, sitting on the stone pedestal, was a laptop.
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The screen glowed brightly in the dark crypt. It was a live video feed of Clara’s hospital room.
And standing right over Clara’s sleeping body was a man holding a syringe.
