The cold service hallway felt like a pressure cooker. Outside, rain tapped relentlessly against the frosted glass windows of the kitchen entrance, but inside, the air was suffocatingly hot with unspoken history.

At 3:30 AM, an armored sedan pulled into the underground garage of a suburban office park in White Plains, New York.

Adrian, Marcus, and two heavy security officers stepped out into the damp concrete garage.

Standing by a service elevator was Harold Vance—Adrian’s uncle, Eleanor’s younger brother, and the former corporate secretary of Vance Infrastructure who had suddenly retired six years ago to live in a sprawling estate in Westchester.

Harold was wearing an expensive silk robe over his pajamas, his face pale and sweating as Adrian walked up to him.

"Adrian!" Harold stammered, looking nervously at the two large guards behind his nephew. "What... what is the meaning of this? It's three in the morning!"

"Hello, Uncle Harold," Adrian said smoothly, his voice pleasant yet dripping with lethal intent. "We need to talk about Saint Jude’s Hospital. Six years ago."

Harold’s eyes darted toward his car, but Marcus stepped into his path, holding up a federal subpoena draft.

"We know about the autopen, Harold," Marcus said calmly. "We know Eleanor used your administrative access code to pull Adrian’s signature exemplar from the 2018 corporate vault."

"I... I don't know what you're talking about!" Harold gasped, backing against the concrete wall. "Eleanor told me it was just a routine non-disclosure agreement for a disgruntled employee! She said the girl was trying to blackmail the family!"

"That 'disgruntled employee' was carrying my four sons!" Adrian roared, slamming his hand against the concrete pillar inches from Harold’s head. The force of the impact made the older man jump three feet into the air. "Four boys, Harold! You helped my mother forge a legal document to strip four infants of their father!"

"I didn't know there were four!" Harold wept, dropping to his knees on the cold concrete. "She told me it was a mistake! She said if the public found out you had a child with a working-class girl before the corporate IPO, the stock would plunge fifty percent! She said she was doing it to save the family name!"

"Where is the original notary book, Harold?" Adrian demanded, pulling his uncle up by his silk lapels. "The notary who stamped that agreement six years ago... where is her log?"

"In... in Eleanor’s safe at the estate in Greenwich," Harold sobbed, shaking violently. "She kept the original notary logbook so the notary could never testify! The notary was Evelyn Reed—Eleanor's personal executive assistant!"

Adrian let go of Harold, letting him sink back onto the garage floor.

He looked at Marcus. "Issue the emergency search warrant for the Greenwich estate. Tell the judge we have a confession from an accomplice in a major corporate fraud and child abandonment conspiracy."