The estate was unusually quiet.
Too quiet.
Amelia stood on the grand balcony overlooking the city skyline, the cold night wind brushing against her pale cheeks.
Her arms instinctively wrapped around her belly, as if to shield the life within from the dark forces closing in around her.
Below, the estate guards patrolled in doubled numbers, but even their presence couldn't shake the creeping sense of unease crawling up her spine.
Damian's voice cut through the silence.
"We have a name."
She turned sharply, her heart thundering.
"Who?"
He placed a sleek black file onto the marble table beside her, his face darker than she'd ever seen it.
Without a word, Amelia flipped open the folder.
And froze.
Her eyes scanned the name written in bold capital letters.
Her lips parted in disbelief.
"Lucien Blake."
Her hands trembled as she tried to process the impossible.
Lucien Blake—the half-brother Ethan had buried in the shadows, a child born of scandal and hidden away from the public eye.
The true heir of the Blake bloodline.
The one man with both the motive and resources to orchestrate this entire nightmare.
Damian's jaw clenched.
"He's the one funding the attacks. And he's after something bigger than revenge, Amelia. He wants everything. Your child… your empire… you."
Amelia's mind raced, memories resurfacing like jagged shards of a broken mirror.
The whispers she heard in the Blake mansion halls years ago.
The forbidden name never spoken aloud.
A shadow behind every scandal, a puppeteer pulling the strings from the darkness.
And now, he had stepped into the light.
Her grip tightened on the balcony railing, knuckles turning white.
"If Lucien wants a war," she whispered coldly, her eyes blazing with the fire of a mother ready to burn the world down for her child, "he'll have it."