The boardroom victory felt like a lifetime ago. Elena leaned her head against the cool glass of the truck window, her chest tight. She kept refreshing the tablet in her lap, watching the grainy feed of the nursery. Maya was still there, playing with her wooden blocks, oblivious.
"You're overthinking it," Silas said, his eyes scanning the road.
"The estate is a fortress."
"I spent six years being told I was 'overthinking' things, Silas. Usually right before something terrible happened." Elena looked at the screen again.
Suddenly, the image didn't just flicker it tore. A coded line of digital noise slashed across Maya's face, and then the screen died.
*SIGNAL LOST*
Elena's heart didn't just beat it crashed against her ribs.
"Silas! The feed is gone."
Silas didn't ask questions he didn't check the tablet. He just saw the look on Elena's face and slammed his foot onto the gas.
The truck's engine roared, a deep, angry sound that drowned out the wind. "Signal jammers," he muttered, his jaw set so tight the muscles pulsed.
"They're isolating the house. Put your seatbelt on."
Elena didn't hear him she was staring at the black screen, her reflection looking back at her pale, terrified, and desperate.
"Faster," she whispered.
"Silas, if they touch her..."
"They won't," Silas promised, but he was white-knuckling the steering wheel.
They took the turn into the Luo Estate on two wheels the sight that met them made Elena's stomach drop.
The heavy iron gates the ones she had spent her first "heiress" check to reinforce were twisted open like they were made of tin. The security booth was a blackened shell, smoke curling lazily into the morning air.
Silas didn't even stop the truck. He drove through the wreckage, the tires screaming as he skidded to a halt on the gravel driveway.
Elena was out of the door before the truck stopped moving. She didn't care about her heels or her expensive suit. She ran. The front doors were wide open, letting in the cold air. The house, usually full of the smell of lavender and floor wax, now smelled of spent gunpowder and ozone.
"Maya!"
Elena's voice cracked, echoing off the high marble ceilings.
"Elder Chen!"
Silence. The kind of silence that feels like a physical weight.
She reached the nursery door. It had been kicked in, the wood splintered around the lock. Elena pushed it open, her breath hitching in a sob she refused to let out.
The room was a mess toys were scattered everywhere, and a chair had been overturned. Elder Chen was on the floor, clutching a bleeding knot on his head, dazed but alive but the rug in the center of the room was empty.
"No," Elena whispered, her world spinning.
"No, no, no..."
She began throwing pillows, looking under the bed, her mind spinning into a dark, empty place.
Then, a tiny sound came from the corner a soft, hiccuping sob from behind the heavy velvet curtains.
Elena lunged for them, ripping the fabric back.
There, curled into a ball with her knees tucked to her chest, was Maya. She was holding her favorite stuffed rabbit so tight its ears were bent.
"Mama?" Maya whimpered, her eyes huge and swimming with tears.
Elena collapsed onto the floor, hauling the girl into her arms. She buried her face in Maya's hair, smelling the familiar scent of baby shampoo and fear.
"I've got you," Elena choked out, her whole body shaking.
"I've got you, baby. You're okay."
Silas appeared in the doorway, his gun drawn, his chest heaving. He looked at the room, then at the floor. He knelt down and picked something up.
It was a silver cufflink. Shaped like a shield.
"The Second Branch," Silas said, his voice dropping an octave.
"My brother's men were here."
The phone in Elena's pocket began to buzz. It felt like a live wire against her leg she pulled it out, her fingers stained with the dust of the floor. She didn't wait for the caller to speak.
"You sent them," she hissed into the phone.
"You used a boardroom meeting to pull us away so you could take my daughter?"
The silence on the other end was heavy. Then, the Patriarch spoke his voice wasn't calm this time. It was a low, dangerous rumble.
"I did not send them, Elena. If I wanted her, she would be in the Sanctuary by now. That boy is playing a game he doesn't understand he stole those pins to frame me."
"I don't care about your family drama!" Elena screamed, clutching Maya tighter.
"She is a child!"
"Then stop playing CEO, Elena. If you want to protect the bloodline, stop fighting for ports and start fighting for blood. The 30-day deal stands. But from this moment on... the Luanda Second Branch answers to you. Silas?"
Silas straightened up, his eyes widening. "Yes, Master."
"She is the Empress give her the keys to the military storage . If anyone even my own blood steps on that property again, bury them in the garden."
The line went dead.
Elena looked up at Silas. The terror in her eyes was being replaced by something else. Something dark, cold, and ancient. She stood up, holding Maya, and looked at the silver pin in Silas's hand.
"Keep it," Elena said.
"I want to pin it to his chest when I kill him."
"Silas, your brother wants to harm my daughter hahaaa," she laughed.
"Tell him that, this green snake can also sting and let him wait for his part for now I am busy and therefore I still don't want to bother with him," she said.
"Also I don't want your family to come after me, you saved me and gave me the plan, you made me wake up by realizing so much that was kept from me, and therefore from here I will walk and fight for my daughter and I alone, thanks but it's time you go back to your world and empire," she said.