The heavy silence inside the corner office on the forty-second floor felt like a vacuum, sucking the oxygen straight out of my lungs.

The moment was broken. Elena took a step back, pulling her phone from her apron pocket. Her face went pale as she read the text message on the screen.

"What is it?" I asked, my instincts instantly going on high alert.

"It's from my landlord in Hudson," she said, her hands shaking as she showed me the screen. "Someone broke into my apartment two hours ago. The landlord called the police. He said the whole place was ransacked."

My jaw tightened into steel. "Did they steal anything?"

"He said... he said they went straight for my files," Elena whispered, her eyes wide with terror. "My medical records. The boys' birth certificates. My personal journals."

"Victoria," I growled, pulling my own phone out.

I dialed Marco, my chief of security.

"Yes, Mr. Marrow?" Marco answered on the second ring.

"My mother sent a team to Elena's apartment in Hudson," I ordered, my voice dangerously low. "They broke in and stole personal documents. I want the security footage from the apartment building downloaded immediately. Trace the vehicle license plates. Find out who she hired and have them detained by local law enforcement within the hour."

"On it, sir."

"And Marco?" I added.

"Sir?"

"Double the guards on the Greenwich estate. Put two armed men on the nursery wing balcony. If anyone so much as steps onto the grass without my clearance, shoot to disable."

"Understood."

I ended the call and looked at Elena. She was trembling, holding her mug so tightly I thought the ceramic would shatter in her hands.

"She's trying to build a legal case against me," Elena said, her voice frantic. "She wants to use my medical history or my journal entries to prove I'm an unfit mother! She's going to try to take them, Tobias!"

I stepped forward, taking the mug from her shaking hands and setting it on the stone ledge. Then I took both of her hands in mine, holding them tight.

"Listen to me, Elena," I said, looking directly into her eyes with an intensity that left no room for doubt. "Nobody is taking our sons. Not my mother, not her lawyers, not the courts. I built Marrow Holdings by destroying people who tried to take what was mine. My mother thinks she knows how to play this game because she taught me the rules. But she forgot one thing."