Chapter 6 - The Tiger at the Gate
The confirmation arrived at 6:00 AM.
Dr. Thorne walked into the private study holding a digital readout from the portable genetic sequencer. Her face was pale, but her eyes were shining with wonder.
"A 99.9% direct paternal match, Marcus," Dr. Thorne whispered, setting the tablet on the mahogany desk. "Lily is your biological daughter."
In the adjoining living room, Lily sat on the plush sofa beside Ethan, who was propped up on extra pillows. Ethan was holding her small hand, laughing softly as he showed her how to play a game on his tablet, while Mrs. Gable served them hot waffles drizzled with maple syrup and fresh strawberries.
"I have a sister," Ethan kept repeating, his face beaming with a joy that completely eclipsed the pain of his spinal injury. "I have a little sister."
Marcus stood by the floor-to-ceiling glass windows of his study, watching his two children together through the doorway. His heart swelled with an overwhelming, fierce love he hadn't felt in four long, dark years. But beneath the warmth, a cold, calculating rage was hardening inside him.
His head of security, a battle-hardened former Special Forces officer named Vance, stepped into the room.
"Boss," Vance reported quietly. "We tracked the IP address from the security fob stolen from Ethan. Someone just attempted to log into the Vance Global main vault from an offshore server facility in Newark."
"Who owns the facility?" Marcus asked, his voice flat and terrifyingly quiet.
"A shell corporation registered in the Cayman Islands," Vance replied, pulling up a file on his secure tablet. "The ultimate beneficiary is Richard Sterling—your senior vice chairman and late wife’s uncle."
Marcus’s jaw clenched so hard a muscle twitched near his ear. "Sterling... He sabotaged Clara’s helicopter four years ago to take control of her trust shares. And when he realized Ethan was old enough to inherit his mother’s voting proxy next month, he ordered his enforcer to push him off the embankment."
"Sterling’s men don't know we have Lily," Vance pointed out. "They think Ethan is in critical care and that the street kid vanished into Central Park. They're planning to execute an emergency board takeover at 10:00 AM today, claiming you are unfit to lead due to family tragedy."
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Marcus turned away from the window, looking at his daughter’s bright smile as she ate a strawberry.
"They think I'm broken," Marcus said, pulling his suit jacket back on and buttoning his cuffs with cold, deliberate precision. "They think they took everything from me four years ago. It’s time to show Richard Sterling what happens when a father gets his family back."
