Chapter 8 - The Secret Database Could Destroy Half of New York, and My Father Intended to Use It Against MeThe database was called The Crown Ledger.
It contained information on hundreds of powerful people.
Judges.
Politicians.
Police.
Business leaders.
Celebrities.
It was blackmail insurance.
My father had built it.
He could destroy careers with one message.
We found the first server.
Empty.
The second.
Burned.
The third—
hidden beneath The Velvet Crown.
Adrien took me there.
The club looked different in daylight.
Still beautiful.
Still dangerous.
But now I understood.
It wasn't merely a nightclub.
It was the center of an information network.
We descended beneath the basement.
There was a vault.
Adrien used his father's key.
The door opened.
Inside were servers.
Documents.
Photographs.
And one final box.
My name was on it.
I opened it.
Inside was a letter.
From my father.
Lena,
You were always the most dangerous person in this family.
Not because of blood.
Because you had the ability to choose.
I couldn't control that.
So I controlled everything else.
I read the rest.
He admitted everything.
My mother's disappearance.
Adrien's father's murder.
Marcus.
Chloe.
The trust.
Everything.
But one thing remained.
My father had not killed my mother.
He had ordered the shooting.
But she had survived.
Someone else had saved her.
Who?
The letter answered.
She was saved by the man you now call your protector.
Adrien.
I looked at him.
“What?”
He shook his head.
“My father?”
“No.”
“Then who?”
The final page.
Adrian Viscari.
Adrien's grandfather.
He had secretly taken my mother.
Protected her.
Then disappeared.
That meant the Viscari family had been protecting mine for generations.
The war between our families had been manufactured.
My father had created it.
To keep control.
I looked at Adrien.
“He wanted you to hate my family.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because if we ever trusted each other, we could expose him.”
I touched the letter.
“We're doing that now.”
“Yes.”
Then the power went out.
The vault doors locked.
Someone had trapped us.
A voice came through the speakers.
My father.
“Hello, Lena.”
I froze.
“You found my ledger.”
Adrien raised his gun.
“Come out.”
My father laughed.
“Not yet.”
The monitors turned on.
A live image of Daniel.
My heart stopped.
“He has the child.”
I screamed.
“Let him go!”
“Bring me the database.”
“No.”
“Then he dies.”
Adrien stepped forward.
“Take me instead.”
My father laughed.
“You are exactly like him.”
“Like who?”
“Your father.”
Adrien's jaw tightened.
“What do you want?”
“The girl.”
I froze.
“Me?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because you're the only person who can open the final account.”
“What account?”
“The inheritance.”
“Money?”
“No.”
“Control.”
The vault door opened.
Armed men entered.
I looked at Adrien.
He whispered:
“Run.”
I shook my head.
“No.”
He stared.
“What?”
“We end it together.”
We fought.
We escaped.
May you like
But my father took Daniel.
And that changed everything.
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