The Billionaire’s Fiancée Kicked the Maid and Awakened the Fighting Style Everyone Thought Had Died With Her Father

Pier 42 was a dark, hollow cavern of rusted shipping containers and rot-eaten wooden planks hanging over the icy East River.

Rain fell in relentless sheets, drumming against the corrugated tin roofs.

Inside the central warehouse, Alexander was tied to a heavy steel chair. His face was bruised, but his eyes were sharp and defiant.

Standing ten feet away was Senator Lane, pacing frantically, sipping scotch from a flask. Beside him stood Victoria, her high-society glamour gone, replaced by manic, unstable rage.

And sitting on a wooden crate in the center of the room was Master Victor Kintanar—a sixty-year-old man with silver hair, a scarred face, and eyes like a cobra.

The heavy steel doors of the warehouse slowly groaned open.

Sophia Reyes stepped through the rain into the dim yellow light of the hanging bulbs.

"Sophia!" Alexander yelled against his ropes. "Get out of here! He’s a killer!"

Sophia didn't look at Alexander yet. Her eyes remained locked on Master Kintanar.

"You came," Kintanar said, his voice sounding like dry leaves rustling across concrete. He stood up slowly, his posture relaxed, almost weightless. "You have Miguel’s eyes, girl. But do you have his spirit?"

"Let Alexander go," Sophia said, her voice calm and steady above the rain. "Your quarrel is with my father's memory, not with him."

Senator Lane laughed hysterically. "Kill her, Victor! Kill her and throw her body into the river! Then we leave the country!"

Kintanar ignored the Senator. He took three slow steps toward Sophia, raising his hands in a wide, fluid stance—the Striking Serpent, the lethal opposite of the Quiet Current.

"Miguel was a fool," Kintanar said quietly. "He possessed ultimate power, yet he chose to live as a mechanic in Queens. He died for a stranger. Tonight, I will erase his legacy forever."

"My father died saving a life," Sophia said, reaching behind her back and drawing her two wooden practice sticks. "That is the only legacy that matters."