Chapter 13 - THE SHADOW IN THE AUDITORIUM
Daniel refused to bring Lily anywhere near the maximum-security psychiatric ward. Instead, he left her under the vigilant care of Maya and two off-duty officers stationed at their fortified residence, instructing them to bolt every window and door until his return.
The correctional facility smelled of industrial bleach and decaying hopes. Daniel was escorted through four security checkpoints into a glass-walled interrogation booth. On the other side sat Evelyn Vance.
She was stripped of her haute-couture dresses and immaculate diamonds. Dressed in a drab orange jumpsuit, her silver hair unkempt, she looked physically diminished—yet her gaze was as sharp and venomous as a viper's. Her lips curled into a hideous, mocking grin the moment Daniel sat down.
"Where is my precious granddaughter, Daniel?" Evelyn purred, her voice raspy. "Afraid of a grandmother in chains?"
"Grace left a tape," Daniel spat, slamming both palms against the Plexiglas. "October fourteenth. I know you murdered her, Evelyn. I know it wasn't an overdose. But more importantly—who was in the house with you? Who is driving the black Mercedes?"
Evelyn’s smile widened, revealing teeth stained with nicotine. She leaned forward until her breath fogged the divider.
"You poor, naive little schoolteacher," she whispered, her eyes dancing with sadistic delight. "You think you won because the judge banged his wooden hammer? You think Grace was a victim of domestic tragedy? Grace wasn't my biological daughter, Daniel. She was collateral."
Daniel felt the air leave his lungs. "What are you talking about?"
"Thirty years ago, an empire fell," Evelyn said, her voice dropping into a dark, hypnotic cadence. "The Vance fortune didn't belong to me. It belonged to the Castiglione syndicate. Grace’s father was the head of that syndicate. When he died, he left fifty million dollars in untraceable bearer bonds to Grace's bloodline—accessible only through a musical cipher hidden inside her original compositions. Grace figured it out. She was going to give it all away to charity. To wipe clean the blood that built this family."
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Evelyn tapped her manicured nail against the glass. "I had to push Lily, Daniel. Because as long as Lily lives, that vault remains locked to the syndicate. And the man in that Mercedes? That's Julian Castiglione. Grace’s uncle. And he doesn't negotiate with music teachers."
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