Chapter 4 - Shadows on the Highway
I tucked Liliana beneath the heavy wool blankets, watching until her breathing slowed into the deep, rhythmic cadence of safe, exhausted sleep. I pulled the bedroom door until it clicked softly, leaving a narrow crack of amber light through the dark hallway, and descended the stairs to my private study. The house felt entirely different tonight, heavy with a new, fragile responsibility that I was still struggling to comprehend.
The room smelled of old leather, cigar smoke, and bourbon. I poured two fingers of amber liquid into a heavy glass, swirling the dark spirit without drinking. My phone vibrated against the mahogany desk, buzzing loudly against the wood. I picked it up immediately, answering on the first ring.
"Boss," Viktor's gravelly voice came through the speaker, low and guarded against the ambient noise of the city. "I ran the plates on the vehicle reported abandoned near the cemetery gates three hours ago. Registered to a shell corporation tied directly to the city records office."
"Dig deeper," I said, leaning back into the leather chair, my eyes fixed on the rain streaking the tall sash windows. "I want to know every clerk who touched those files. Someone altered her birth records, and someone made sure she ended up abandoned on that specific plot of ground."
"It gets worse," Viktor continued, his hesitation telling me everything I needed to know before he even spoke the words. "The estate lawyers finalized the probate division for the property yesterday. Everything she owned—every account, every trust—was signed over to her brother. The uncle who swore she had no living children."
A cold, lethal calm settled over my veins. The betrayal wasn't just corporate; it was familial. They had tried to wipe out not just the mother, but the entire legacy, leaving my daughter to starve in the dirt while they divvied up her inheritance in air-conditioned boardrooms.
"Where is her uncle now?" I asked, my voice dangerously quiet.
"Downtown, attending a charity gala at the grand hotel. Surrounded by reporters and city officials."
May you like
I stood up, buttoning my suit jacket over my chest, feeling the reassuring weight of the automatic pistol holstered beneath my arm. I looked back toward the stairs, thinking of Liliana sleeping safely upstairs in my shirt, clutching her silver locket.
"Keep a guard at the brownstone," I told Viktor. "Lock every door. I'm going to have a conversation with her uncle."
