Maxwell's office looked like a financial crime scene at three in the morning. Papers covered every surface, laptop screens glowed with spreadsheets, and empty coffee cups formed small cities on his desk. He hadn't slept since the kidnapping attempt, and his usually perfect suit was wrinkled, tie loosened. But his eyes were sharp as a blade when he waved me over to his main computer screen."Found it," he said simply, pointing at a transaction history that looked like abstract art. "The kidnappers were paid fifty thousand each, wired from an account in the Cayman Islands yesterday morning."I leaned closer, studying the numbers while Lily slept safely at the estate with Emma watching over her. The screen showed a maze of transfers, each one bouncing through different countries, different banks, designed to hide the source. But Maxwell had followed every thread, untangled every knot."The Cayman account belongs to a shell company called Celestial Holdings," Maxwell continued, pulling up

Maxwell's hands shook as he set the folder on my desk. I'd never seen him like this—face pale, eyes haunted, looking like he'd discovered something that changed everything. He'd been investigating all night, following paper trails that started with Lily's trust fund and led somewhere neither of us expected."You need to see this," he said quietly, opening the folder to reveal death certificates, police reports, and insurance documents. "Lily's parents didn't just die in an accident. They were murdered."The words hit me like cold water. I stared at the documents, each one telling part of a story I didn't want to believe. James and Sarah Chen, Lily's parents, had died five years ago when their car went off a cliff on Mountain Road. The investigation had ruled it an accident—brake failure on a rainy night. But Maxwell had found something everyone else missed."The insurance payout was three million dollars," Maxwell continued, pointing to highlighted sections. "It went into a trust for

The safehouse was nothing like our mansion—just a simple two-story home in a quiet suburb, surrounded by normal families living normal lives. But it had something more valuable than marble floors or crystal chandeliers: anonymity. No one would look for Lily here, hidden among tricycles on driveways and basketball hoops in yards. Brandon's security team had swept it three times, installed cameras that covered every angle, and stationed guards who looked like regular neighbors working on their gardens. Lily sat on the living room carpet, coloring in a book Emma had brought. She didn't know why we'd moved so suddenly, only that it was an adventure. Her innocent trust broke my heart. Soon, very soon, I'd have to tell her the truth about her parents' death, about Victoria's role in making her an orphan. But not today. Today, she just needed to be safe. Dr. Sarah Mitchell arrived at noon, carrying a leather bag filled with toys and books instead of medical equipment. She was the best chi