Chapter 4 - THE THREAT FROM THE EMPIRE
Lucas stood up slowly, his tear-streaked face hardening into a look of absolute, cold fury as he faced the stranger. He instinctively shielded Nataly and the twin boys behind his broad shoulders.
"Who are you, and how do you know my father?" Lucas demanded, his voice dropping into a dangerous, protective register.
"My name is Detective Marcus Reed, private investigator," the man answered, opening the leather folder to reveal surveillance photos of Lucas's limousine parked outside Mercy General. "Your father, Sterling Vance, hired my agency five years ago to make sure Nataly disappeared permanently."
Nataly stepped closer to Lucas, her hand gripping his sleeve so tightly her knuckles turned white. "Sterling threatened to frame my father for embezzlement and throw him in federal prison if I ever contacted you again."
Lucas felt his blood turn to liquid ice as the horrifying truth settled into his core. The sudden departure of the love of his life five years ago had not been a betrayal by Nataly—it had been an execution planned by his own father.
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"He lied to me," Lucas whispered, his knuckles turning white as he clenched his fists. "He told me you took twenty million dollars from the family trust and fled to Europe."
"I never took a single cent from your family, Lucas," Nataly said fiercely, looking him straight in the eyes. "I worked two jobs in Chicago just to pay for the boys' medical care."
