Vivian Rose refused to trade herself for another hostage. She and Sebastian Knox returned to the engagement gala held inside Vivian's stolen hotel before midnight, using the key from the ambush to enter the archive their enemy had tried to keep buried.
Inside were recordings, legal files, and a wall tracking Vivian Rose's life from childhood to the previous night. Someone had planned every loss with patient precision. At the center, a line connected her to Sebastian Knox, then continued toward a sealed record neither of them had seen.
Sebastian Knox reached it first. The evidence proved the truth neither of them was ready to trust: Sebastian, the rival beside her, helped fake her death but never revealed what he demanded in return. It also showed why he had been tied to the conspiracy long before he met Vivian Rose.
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—and the hostage video had been playing from an empty room.
“You finally found the truth,” the stranger said. “Now choose: expose it and destroy Sebastian Knox, or bury it and become the woman who betrays him.”
Vivian Rose took Sebastian Knox's hand instead.
The stranger smiled and pressed a remote. Behind them, the archive began counting down from ten.