The archive was hidden beneath the engagement gala held inside Vivian's stolen hotel, protected by a lock that required two blood samples and a spoken family name. Vivian Rose expected the door to reject her. It opened before Sebastian Knox finished the warning.
Inside were recordings, legal files, and a wall of photographs tracking her life from childhood to the previous night. Someone had planned every betrayal with patient precision. At the center of the wall, a red thread connected Vivian Rose to Sebastian Knox, then continued toward a sealed photograph neither of them had seen.
He reached it first. The image showed their parents standing together years before either family claimed to have met. On the back, one sentence changed the meaning of every promise between them: Sebastian, the rival beside her, helped fake her death but never revealed what he demanded in return.
Footsteps filled the corridor. Sebastian Knox reached for his weapon, but Vivian Rose stopped him. Running had brought her here. This time she would make the person hunting them speak.
The archive door opened. The intruder removed a hood, and Vivian Rose's breath caught. The face belonged to someone whose funeral she had attended.
“You finally found the truth,” the stranger said. “Now choose which one of you gets to survive it.”