Zara's grip on Jaxon's hand tightened as the speaker crackled again.
"Curiosity," Victor Blackthorne's voice echoed, slow and deliberate, "is what killed the cat, wasn't it?"
Jaxon stepped toward the door, fury simmering beneath his calm.
"Let us out."
"You broke into my house," Victor replied. "You snooped through my files, dragged a girl into the depths of a legacy she doesn't understand, and now you demand things?"
Zara swallowed. "You're the one hiding things. Girls are disappearing. Files are being buried. You're covering it up."
A pause. Then a low, humorless chuckle from the speaker.
"Zara," Victor said, almost fondly, "do you really think you were the first girl to uncover a piece of the truth? Isla thought the same. So did the others. They were warned, just like you."
Jaxon slammed his fist against the metal door. "What did you do to them?!"
Another beat of silence.
Then: "I protected this family. Our name. Our empire."
Zara stepped forward, voice trembling but fierce. "You ruined lives to do it."
"Sacrifices," Victor said simply. "Some people exist to be remembered. Others… to be erased."
They were trapped for almost an hour before the door clicked open.
No guards. No alarms.
Just the empty hallway waiting like an open mouth.
Jaxon looked at her. "He wants us to leave."
Zara narrowed her eyes. "Or he wants us to think we're safe."
They ran.
Up the hall. Out the front. Through the iron gates.
The van was still there, driver smoking like nothing had happened. Jaxon barked at him to move, and the tires screeched into the night.
Zara didn't speak until the house was just a distant blur behind them.
"He'll come after us now."
Jaxon nodded. "Not just us. Everyone we've talked to. Everyone who helped."
She felt cold all over. "Theo."
They burst into the dorm building less than an hour later.
Zara sprinted to Theo's room, heart hammering.
She knocked. Then pounded.
Nothing.
She turned the knob unlocked.
The room was dark. Desk lamp still on. Computer screen frozen on a blue error code.
And the window?
Open.
Zara stepped inside, hands shaking.
On the floor near the desk, a single USB drive lay on the carpet. She picked it up slowly.
A note was taped to it.
"If you're reading this, it's too late."