The chandelier trembled. The walls creaked. The estate plunged into pitch-black silence. Jace Carter stood frozen, the beeping pocket watch still in his hand, glowing faintly red, like a ticking warning from beyond the grave. “You shouldn’t have come here, Carter.”The voice echoed again. Male. Calm. Measured. Not a shout. Not a scream. A statement. He looked around the darkened estate hall, but saw no movement, only the outlines of velvet furniture and tall windows flashing with distant lightning. The power outage wasn’t random. This was deliberate.Jace’s instincts screamed at him to move. To run. But to where? He didn’t even know where he was. Or who he was dealing with, A sharp crack echoed from the far end of the hallway, like a door slamming open. Then another sound, Footsteps.Heavy. Slow. Unhurried. Getting closer, He shoved the pocket watch into his jacket, heart racing, and backed away from the center of the room, Suddenly, a soft light flickered to life near the wall, a mas

Darkness swallowed everything. Salt water. Metal. Screams. Then nothing. A pulse woke him, A ragged, stabbing breath punched Jace Carter’s lungs as he jolted awake, coughing violently. His vision blurred. Salt stung his eyes. His body throbbed like a broken instrument.He was alive. Somehow, Waves slammed into him, choking his gasp with seawater. He kicked, instinct more than thought, and his legs met open space. He was floating. Alive. Free. But where was the plane? Where was Elena?He tried to scream her name, but it came out a rasp,Through the haze, he saw something burning in the distance. A flaming hulk, the last remnants of the plane, now sinking into the black sea like a dying god. A few yards away floated a case. The briefcase.Elena’s voice echoed in his mind: “The vault key! Don’t let it”Jace forced his limbs to move, swimming toward it with everything he had left. The sea pulled at him, cold and endless. But the case was all that mattered, He reached it, clutched it to his

The private jet roared through the night, cutting across the Atlantic like a black arrow. Jace sat in the cabin, knuckles white on the armrests. The news loop played endlessly on the flat screen in front of him:“BREAKING: Daven Carter emerges as alleged true heir.”“Jace Carter under investigation by Interpol and U.S. Justice Department.”“Carter family feud ignites global market chaos.”He was now a fugitive. A criminal in the eyes of half the world, Lucien’s plan was unfolding perfectly. And Noelle Varga, the next key to unlocking the Carter Consortium, had vanished just as everything caught fire.“You’re shaking,” Elena said, seated across from him. She was bandaging the wound on her shoulder from the crash, her movements sharp and efficient. Jace forced himself to breathe.“If Daven’s alive,” he said slowly, “then why did Elias choose me?”“Because Elias didn’t trust Daven. He called him a poison bred by his own blood.”“Then why keep it a secret?”“Because even Elias knew that m

Dubai sparkled like a desert jewel, its towers gleaming beneath the brutal sun, its streets teeming with the world’s elite, politicians, powerbrokers, predators, Some called it paradise. For Jace Carter, it was a battlefield wrapped in glass.He touched down at 3:47 AM on a private, unregistered jet secured by Darius. No flight plan. No announcement. No room for error.Elena, her arm now stitched and stabilized, walked beside him despite her injury. Her glare said she was ready to shoot anyone even God who got in their way.Gustavo Reyes remained behind in a hidden location, controlling satellite surveillance and drone intel. “You’re walking into a trap,” he warned through their encrypted comm. “Expect layers. Triple blinds. Daven was trained by the same ghosts I was, only they broke him in ways they never broke me.”Jace didn’t flinch. “Let him try.” The board vote was scheduled for noon. Location: The Ecliptic, the tallest tower in Dubai, entirely owned by Carter Global. That day, e