Elijah stood frozen.
The note trembled in his hands, the ink slightly smudged as if whoever had written it was rushed—or terrified.
> "I'm sorry. They took her."
His mind screamed against the silence.
Amina was gone.
He searched the room—every drawer, closet, under the desk. But there was no struggle, no overturned furniture, no broken glass. Whoever had taken her had done it clean. Professional.
"Elijah!" Elias burst through the door. "What happened?"
"They got her," Elijah said, voice hollow. "Grace has Amina."
Elias's eyes widened. "God... we have to move fast. Before she's off the grid."
Elijah didn't reply.
His hands were already clenching.
His mother had been silenced.
His father had been erased.
He wasn't going to lose Amina too.
---
Across the city, deep inside Grace's private estate, Amina sat tied to a chair in a soundproof basement. The room smelled of paint thinner and metal—a faint reminder that this place wasn't designed for comfort. It was built for silence.
She wasn't blindfolded.
Grace wanted her to see.
To understand.
A single camera faced her, blinking red. She knew it was broadcasting somewhere—to Elijah, to her enemies, maybe even to the board.
The door creaked open.
Grace entered, dressed in black.
Poised. Deadly.
"You're braver than I thought," Grace said, pulling a chair opposite Amina.
Amina met her eyes. "You're more scared than I thought."
Grace's lip twitched. "I'm not scared, dear. I'm prepared. Something your boyfriend clearly isn't."
"If he wasn't prepared, he wouldn't have made the world see what you truly are."
Grace leaned in. "He made the world watch. But people forget. They move on. And in the meantime, he's alone. Exposed. And now…" she gestured around the room, "…distracted."
Amina's pulse quickened.
"You want him to come for me," she said. "You want to trap him."
Grace tilted her head. "Very good."
"But you won't kill me yet."
Grace's smile faded.
"No," she said. "Not yet."
---
Elijah's fingers flew across the laptop keyboard, tracking every signal, every trace of data the camera had pinged to the dark web. His mind was sharper than ever—because the stakes had never been higher.
Elias watched him with quiet tension.
"I've got a possible location," Elijah muttered. "An offline compound—five miles outside Tigoni. No cellular data, no cameras except one feed sent to a military-grade relay."
Elias frowned. "You go in there without backup and Grace kills you both."
"I won't be going alone," Elijah said.
He picked up a phone.
"Who are you calling?" Elias asked.
Elijah's voice was firm.
"Everyone she ever betrayed."
---
Two hours later, Elijah met with an unlikely crew in an abandoned warehouse: former board members Grace had pushed out, employees she had fired to cover her corruption, and even one ex-intelligence officer who'd once been loyal to Daniel Mwangi.
They listened to Elijah.
Watched the video of Amina tied to the chair.
And for the first time in years, their resentment had a face… and a cause.
"She wants a war?" one man said. "Let's give her one."
---
Meanwhile, Amina sat silently as Grace read from a file—her personal life laid bare, read like a grocery list.
"Top of your journalism class. Rejected multiple lucrative job offers. Stayed in school for love… or was it guilt?"
Amina said nothing.
Grace looked up. "You think he loves you because he saved you once?"
"No," Amina said. "I know he loves me because he never stopped."
Grace's expression hardened.
"You cost me everything. That boy was supposed to die in obscurity. And you—just a footnote in a university file."
Amina leaned forward, as much as her restraints allowed.
"Then you should've made sure to stay out of our way."
---
Nightfall.
Elijah and the team assembled on a grassy ridge overlooking the compound.
The estate was heavily guarded—motion sensors, dogs, armed patrols.
Elijah crouched beside the former intelligence officer.
"She's in the basement. They'll keep her alive—Grace needs leverage. We need to disable comms, take out the snipers, then breach from the eastern wall."
Elijah's jaw tightened. "How long?"
"Five minutes, if everything goes perfectly."
"It won't."
"I know."
---
Inside the compound, Amina's chair was now bolted to the floor. Grace had switched the camera feed to live. It now transmitted directly to Elijah's private account.
The message was clear: Come for her, and you die too.
Grace walked into frame.
"Elijah," she said to the camera, "you have one hour. Come alone. Or she dies."
She cut the feed.
---
But Elijah wasn't planning to come alone.
---
Forty minutes later, the operation began.
Two drones scrambled communications.
A remote jammer disabled Grace's panic lines.
Three sharpshooters took down the outer guards with tranquilizers.
Elijah moved through the shadows like a ghost, heart pounding with every step.
He entered the east wing.
One guard. Silent takedown.
Then another.
He reached the basement door.
Inside, Grace stood with a gun pointed at Amina.
Amina's eyes widened.
"Elijah!"
He froze.
Grace turned, smiling coldly.
"Well, well."
---
Elijah stepped into the room, hands raised.
"No tricks," he said. "I came alone."
Grace raised the gun. "You're lying."
"Check your cameras," Elijah said. "I disabled them all."
A beat of silence.
Then she laughed bitterly.
"Do you really think you win just by getting here?"
"No," Elijah said. "I win because I'm not afraid of you anymore."
He reached into his pocket—slowly—and tossed a small device onto the floor.
A live stream signal.
Red light: ON.
Grace's gun trembled.
"You're broadcasting?"
"To every major media house," Elijah said. "You shoot either of us… the world sees."
Her face twisted.
"You little—"
Then a shot rang out—but not from Grace.
From the shadows behind.
One of Elijah's allies, armed with a sniper pistol, took the shot through the vent opening.
Grace fell.
Blood pooled.
Not fatal—but enough to end it.
---
Minutes later, police and journalists flooded the compound.
Grace was arrested—publicly, on live television.
Elijah carried Amina out, their hands still bound together by fate and fire.
---
In the days that followed, everything changed.
Grace was formally indicted. Her empire dismantled.
Daniel Mwangi's case reopened.
The truth was no longer whispered—it was sung.
Elijah returned to Silvergate, not as the Ghost Heir, but as the rightful one.
And Amina? Her suspension was lifted. She was offered national syndication.
She declined.
Because her story wasn't over yet.
---
Final scene of the chapter:
A sunset over Nairobi. Elijah and Amina on the rooftop of a high-rise.
He turned to her.
"I lost my mother. My father. My name."
A pause.
"But I found you."
She looked into his eyes.
"And you'll never lose me."
Their lips met under a sky that no longer held secrets.