Chapter 3 - The Stolen HeiressThe revelation hung in the cold air like a guillotine.
Ethan looked from Victoria’s grief-stricken face to Lily, then to Gerald, whose expression had transformed from panic to a cold, calculating malice. The pieces of the puzzle were shifting into place, revealing a picture uglier than anything Ethan had encountered in the darkest corners of the business world.
"Your baby?" Ethan asked Victoria, keeping his tone measured.
"Three years ago," Victoria wept, covering her face with her hands. "I fell in love with Lin, a brilliant young architect from Shanghai who was working on our flagship tower. My father hated him. He said a penniless foreigner would never pollute the Whitmore bloodline. When I got pregnant, Lin disappeared. Father told me Lin took a bribe and ran back to China. Months later, when I gave birth, the doctors told me my daughter was stillborn. I never even got to hold her."
She looked at Lily, her voice breaking into a whisper. "But a week ago, I found a hidden account in my father's ledger. Regular payments to a private medical facility, and then... to a caretaker here. I started asking questions. And today... today I realized why this basement was always locked."
"She’s a bastard, Victoria!" Gerald hissed, abandoning all pretense of civility. "She is a stain on this family! If the board found out you had a child with a nameless Chinese laborer, the merger with the European conglomerate would have collapsed. I did what was necessary to protect the legacy!"
"By locking a three-year-old child in a basement?" Ethan’s voice was dangerously low. He stepped forward, his fists clenching. "By starving your own granddaughter?"
"She wasn't starved!" Gerald defended fiercely. "She was provided for! The nanny was supposed to feed her daily. If the girl is thin, it's her own stubbornness!"
Ethan didn't waste another breath on Gerald. He scooped Lily up into his arms. The little girl froze, terrified by the sudden movement, but she didn't fight him. She clutched her plastic cup tightly against her chest, burying her face into the crook of Ethan’s neck. She was impossibly light, like a bird with broken wings.
"Victoria," Ethan said, his voice cutting through the heiress's sobbing. "Are you coming with me, or are you staying with him?"
Victoria looked up, her eyes clearing with a sudden, fierce resolve. She stood up, wiping her tears, leaving her father standing alone in the shadows of the basement. "I’m coming with you."
"You walk out that door, Victoria, and you are written out of the will!" Gerald shouted after them, his voice echoing off the concrete walls as they ascended the stairs. "You will have nothing! And Cole, you are interfering in a private family matter. I will sue you for kidnapping!"
Ethan paused at the top of the stairs, looking back down at the billionaire patriarch who looked smaller and meaner than he ever had before.
"Try it, Gerald," Ethan said softly. "I own three of the largest media networks in the country. By tomorrow morning, the entire world will know what you did to your own blood. Let's see how your merger goes then."
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Without waiting for a response, Ethan walked out into the bright, luxurious hallway, carrying the secret the Whitmore family had tried so desperately to bury. But as they reached the grand foyer, the security alarms began to wail, and the heavy iron gates of the estate began to grind shut. Gerald wasn't going to let them leave that easily.
Dưới đây là diễn biến tiếp theo của câu chuyện từ Part 4 đến Part 10. Hãy cùng theo dõi cuộc đối đầu nghẹt thở giữa Ethan Cole và gia tộc Whitmore, hành trình chữa lành của bé Lily, và cái kết viên mãn đứng về phía chính nghĩa.
