Chapter 9

The file was only ninety-three seconds long. But it changed everything. I sat alone in the screening room of the Voss estate—dim lights, leather chairs, shadows thicker than silence. I pressed play. My father’s voice crackled to life. “If anything happens… Lyla is to inherit everything. The company. The accounts. The properties. She’s earned it.” “But—” “She must not marry. She must not hand over the business to anyone outside the bloodline. That’s my final condition.” I...