By the time Grace Walker realized every man in the courtyard had stopped talking, the estate gates had already closed behind her.

Samuel Walker stood at the base of the concrete stairs, his shoulders slightly hunched with age, but his eyes as sharp and bright as Grace remembered.

"Grace," Samuel whispered, his voice cracking with immense emotion.

Grace didn't walk down the steps—she ran. She flew down the concrete stairs and threw her arms around her father’s neck, weeping openly against his shoulder.

Samuel held her fiercely, burying his face in her hair, his arms trembling as he held his daughter for the first time in twelve years.

"I'm sorry, Gracie," Samuel wept softly. "I’m so sorry... I had to keep you safe... I had to stay dead..."

Titan bounded down the stairs behind them, letting out a joyful, high-pitched whine as he shoved his massive head right between Samuel and Grace, demanding his share of the reunion.

Samuel laughed through his tears, kneeling down to rub the mastiff’s ears. "Hey, old boy. You brought her back to me. Good dog."

Luca descended the steps slowly, keeping his hand near his holster, his eyes sweeping the high-tech subterranean bunker. The room was lined with monitors, blueprints, vintage metalworking tools, and a massive steel vault door built directly into the bedrock wall at the rear of the chamber.

"Samuel," Luca said quietly.

Samuel stood up, wiping his eyes, and looked at the young man who had grown into the head of the Moretti family.

"Luca," Samuel said, bowing his head slightly. "Look at you. You look just like Marco. Your father would be proud of the man you’ve become."

"You sent the note to my estate," Luca said. "You knew Vance was closing in."

"I had to force the timeline," Samuel explained, guiding Grace toward a wooden workbench near the center of the bunker. "Vance’s health is failing. He’s dying of pancreatic cancer, and he knows his empire will crumble unless he gets his hands on the Moretti bearer bonds and political ledgers inside this vault."

"He attacked my estate three hours ago," Luca revealed.

Samuel didn't look surprised. "I know. I’ve been monitoring Vance’s private security channels from here. He knew Grace was at your mansion. That was his mistake—he assumed Grace was just a pawn to draw you out. He didn't realize that Grace is the master key."

Grace looked between her father and Luca, her confusion mounting. "What do you mean, Dad? Why am I the key?"

Samuel took Grace’s hands in his worn, calloused palms.

"Twelve years ago, when Marco Moretti asked me to design a vault to hide his family’s legacy, I knew that any physical key could be stolen, and any passcode could be tortured out of a man," Samuel explained gently. "So I built the vault’s primary trigger using a dual-strand biometric lock."