I couldn’t speak.

My father was alive.

And he was hunting me.

At least, that’s what Robert had said.

But Helena looked at me with such sorrow that I knew there was more.

“Why would my own father want to hurt me?”

“He doesn’t.”

“Then why is he here?”

“Because someone else is controlling him.”

Before I could ask who, the underground lights flickered.

Helena grabbed my wrist.

“We have to go.”

“Where?”

“To the place where this began.”

She led me through another tunnel.

It opened behind an abandoned church several blocks away.

Julia was waiting there.

The moment she saw me, she ran toward me.

“I thought you were dead!”

I hugged her.

“Where’s Robert?”

“I don’t know.”

Julia’s expression changed.

“Sophia…”

She held up her phone.

The livestream recording from my teddy bear was still running.

We watched the last few minutes.

Robert had been dragged from the study.

But the man who entered wasn’t my father.

It was a police officer.

A detective.

Detective Marcus Vale.

My mother had once trusted him.

And he had been working with Robert for years.

Then another video appeared.

A security recording from Saint Helena.

Twenty years earlier.

A fire was spreading through the children’s home.

People were running.

Smoke filled the hallway.

And then I saw her.

My mother.

She was carrying a baby.

She handed the baby to a young man.

My father.

Then she turned around.

She went back inside.

I covered my mouth.

“She saved me.”

Helena nodded.

“She knew they were coming for you.”

“Who?”

“The people who financed Saint Helena.”

I stared at her.

“Why would wealthy people care about one baby?”

Helena hesitated.

“Because you weren’t just a baby.”

She opened an old envelope.

Inside was a DNA report.

My name was printed across the top.

But beneath it was something impossible.

Genetic inheritance: exceptional compatibility with Valdez family estate.

I looked at Helena.

“What does that mean?”

She whispered:

“Your biological father was the heir to one of the largest private fortunes in Connecticut.”

My stomach twisted.

“And the people who caused the fire wanted that inheritance.”

Julia stared at me.

“So your family didn’t disappear because of the fire.”

“No.”

I looked at the burning building on the screen.

“They disappeared because of me.”

Suddenly, headlights appeared outside the church.

A car stopped.

The driver’s door opened.

A man stepped out.

Older now.

Gray hair.

Scar across his cheek.

He looked directly at me.

I knew him instantly.

The man from the photograph.

My father.

He slowly raised both hands.

“Sophia.”

I couldn’t move.

He took one step forward.

“I have waited twenty years to tell you the truth.”

Then a sniper’s rifle flashed from the rooftop.

My father shoved me to the ground.

The bullet struck him in the chest.

NEXT PART