The message came at midnight.
Aria sat up in bed as her encrypted phone vibrated once, then died. One notification.
"V = Victoria Vale. Alias: The Vulture."
She stared at the screen, heart pounding.
Victoria Vale.
Once a rising star in the Blackthorne Corporation. Disappeared five years ago after Elias's death. No obituary. No arrest. No trace.
Just rumors.
Whispers of blackmail, betrayal… and blood.
She was part of it. Part of what destroyed everything.
Aria got dressed quickly.
Tonight wasn't about playing wife.
Tonight, she was her father's daughter.
—
She met her contact in an underground garage on the edge of the city. Dim lights. Oil-slick air. Her heels echoed like gunshots on the concrete.
He stepped from the shadows.
"You shouldn't have dug into Vale," he said without greeting. "She's not just dangerous—she's untouchable."
"Not to me."
He handed her a flash drive. "This is everything I could find. Don't open it on anything traceable."
"What's in it?"
"A list."
"Of what?"
"People who owed Elias… and people who helped kill him."
Her fingers curled around the drive.
"Lucien?"
"His name's not on the list."
Pause.
"But his signature is."
—
Back at the estate, Lucien stood alone in Elias's old office.
He had the fireplace lit, flames dancing like secrets.
In his hand: a photo.
Elias. Aria's father. Victoria Vale. And him.
Four people. One legacy.
Three dead men.
One ghost rising.
He threw the photo into the fire.
"She's getting too close."
His phone rang.
A private number.
He answered.
"You said to call if she found the drive," said the voice on the other end. Female. Cold. Precise.
Lucien's eyes narrowed.
"Hello, Victoria."
"She's on the warpath. I warned you not to marry her."
"And yet here we are."
"If she opens that list, it's not just your empire that burns—it's mine."
Lucien stared into the fire.
"Then maybe it's time we burn her first."