Chapter 2 - The Vault of Lies
Ten minutes later, Elias Mercer arrived, carrying a heavy tactical duffel bag. Elias was a man of few words, his face scarred from his years in military intelligence, but his loyalty to Julian was absolute.
"You look like you've seen a ghost, boss," Elias remarked, setting his bag down on the concrete floor.
"I have," Julian said, his eyes locked on the steel door. "Crack it."
Elias didn't ask questions. He pulled out a specialized diagnostic tablet, connected a series of bypass wires to the electronic keypad’s maintenance port, and began running an decryption algorithm. "This is a military-grade lock, Julian. The old man didn't want anyone—including you—seeing what was inside."
"My father didn't trust anyone," Julian said, his jaw tight. "He saw everyone as an asset or a liability. I was his primary asset. My sister... she became a liability the moment she showed signs of having a conscience."
The tablet let out a sharp, green beep. The heavy steel bolts inside the door retracted with a deep, echoing clank. The door swung open, revealing a dark, dust-free room lined with steel filing cabinets, a heavy oak desk, and a massive floor safe.
Julian walked inside, the scent of old paper and leather filling his nose. He bypassed the desk and went straight to the filing cabinets labeled Family Archive. He began pulling drawers open, his hands moving with frantic precision.
He found school records, medical histories, and trust fund documents. Then, at the very back of the bottom drawer, he found a thick, black leather binder labeled: Project Heritage.
Julian opened it. The first page was a medical document dated eleven years ago. It was a fertility clinic report from the Boston Reproductive Clinic.
His eyes scanned the page, and his breath caught.
Patient: Julian Vance. Procedure: Sperm retrieval and cryopreservation.
The date of the procedure was the exact week Julian had been in a coma after his car crash.
Julian’s hands began to shake as he turned the pages. There were signed consent forms—signed not by him, but by his father, Arthur Vance, acting as his legal medical proxy. There were records of successful fertilization using anonymous donor eggs, followed by surrogate contracts.
And then, he saw the names of the surrogates.
One of them was listed as Clara Vance.
"My god," Julian whispered, the room spinning around him. "He didn't just tell me I was sterile. He harvested my DNA while I was unconscious. He used my own sister..."
He kept reading, his eyes burning with a mixture of horror and fury. Clara had discovered what their father was doing. She had found out that Arthur was planning to breed heirs in secret—heirs that he would raise himself, free from Julian’s influence, to ensure the Vance dynasty remained under his absolute control.
Clara had stolen the first child—Lily—and run away to save her. She had lived in hiding, changing her name, protecting Julian’s daughter from the very man who had created her.
But what about the baby?
Julian turned to the final page of the binder. It was a recent document, dated only a month ago. It was a birth record from an underground medical facility in South Boston.
Patient: Anonymous. Child: Male. Status: Discharged to Arthur Vance’s estate trust.
But Arthur Vance was dead. The trust was run by a board of directors, led by Julian’s uncle, Victor Vance.
Julian closed the binder with a thunderous slam. The pieces of the puzzle were falling into place, forming a picture so dark it defied comprehension. His father had started this monstrous experiment, but his uncle Victor was continuing it. They had kept his sister in hiding, hunted her down, and when she tried to bring the newborn baby—his son—to Julian for protection, they had taken her, thrown her in the hospital, and discarded the child in the trash to cover their tracks.
"Elias," Julian said, his voice dropping to a terrifying, quiet whisper.
"Yeah, boss?" Elias asked, sensing the dangerous shift in Julian's demeanor.
"Get the car. We are going to Boston General Hospital. And call our security team at the docks. I want my uncle Victor’s offices locked down. No one enters, and no one leaves."
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"What are we doing?"
"We are going to bring my sister home," Julian said, his eyes flashing with the cold, blue fire of a man who had finally found something worth fighting for. "And then, I am going to tear this city's elite apart."
