Four years after my husband destroyed our secret marriage and convinced me I meant nothing to him, I saw Sebastian Vale across Central Park and ran with a stroller carrying three children he never knew existed. I almost escaped—until my son turned around, and Sebastian saw the same gray eyes that had belonged to Vale men for generations.

While peace was taking root inside the penthouse, a storm was brewing in the dark corners of the city.

Arthur Vale was not a man who accepted defeat. Stripped of his authority, banished to his secondary residence in Upstate New York, the old man orchestrated one last desperate attempt to regain control of the empire.

It happened on a cold Tuesday evening in December.

Maya was taking the children to a private pediatric clinic on the Upper East Side—a secure medical facility managed by Sebastian’s trusted personal physicians.

As their black SUV pulled into the subterranean parking garage of the medical building, two heavy silver vans suddenly sped inside, blocking the garage exit ramp.

"Mr. Frank!" the bodyguard in the front passenger seat shouted, drawing his sidearm. "It’s an ambush! Drive back!"

Before Frank could reverse the heavy SUV, a third van slammed into the rear bumper, pinning their vehicle between the concrete pillar and the garage wall.

Six men in dark tactical gear jumped out of the vans, carrying heavy crowbars and glass-shattering equipment.

Inside the SUV, the children began to scream in terror.

"Mama! Mama!" Ivy cried, burying her face in Maya’s sweater.

"Hold on to me!" Maya screamed, wrapping her arms tightly around all three children on the rear seat, shielding their small bodies with her own frame. "Hold on!"

The driver, Frank, fired two warning shots through the reinforced bulletproof glass, but the attackers weren't trying to shoot—they were deploying heavy military-grade tear gas canisters directly beneath the SUV’s air intake vents.

Smoke began to seep into the cabin.

"Get them out!" a masked man shouted outside, smashing a sledgehammer against the driver’s side window, leaving spiderweb cracks across the heavy glass. "The old man wants the kids! Leave the woman!"

Click.

Suddenly, the secondary security gates of the parking garage roared open.

Three sleek, armored black SUVs tore into the garage at full speed, slamming directly into the attackers' silver vans with a deafening crunch of twisted metal.

From the lead SUV, Sebastian leaped out before the vehicle had even come to a complete stop.

He was not wearing a business suit. He wore a dark tactical coat, his eyes wild with a lethal, primal fury. Behind him were ten elite security operatives from Vale’s primary private force.

"Get away from my family!" Sebastian shouted.

The fight in the garage was short, brutal, and absolute. Sebastian moved like an unstoppable force, tackling the man with the sledgehammer into a concrete pillar, disarming him with a single swift strike, and slamming him face-first onto the damp floor.

Within three minutes, all six attackers were pinned to the ground in handcuffs.

Sebastian ran to the pinned SUV, pulling open the heavy passenger door that Frank unlocked from inside.

"Maya!" Sebastian gasped, leaning into the vehicle.

The air inside was thick with smoke, but Maya was still crouched over the children, her coat stretched over their heads, coughing violently.

"They're okay..." Maya wheezed out, looking up at him with tear-streaked eyes. "They're safe..."

Sebastian reached in, scooping Maya and all three children into his massive arms, lifting them out of the damaged vehicle and carrying them directly into his armored SUV.

He pulled Maya against his chest, burying his face in her hair, his entire body trembling with terrifying adrenaline. "I’m sorry... I’m so sorry... I should have protected you better..."

"It was Arthur," Maya whispered against his neck, clutching his jacket tightly. "They said the old man wanted the kids."