Chapter 2 - The Shadow in the Sky
wo hours felt like a lifetime on that frozen ledge. My limbs grew stiff and heavy, the
frostbite slowly claiming my fingers and toes. I could hear voices drifting down from the top
of the cliff—Victor and his mistress, Serena. They were peer-checking the edge, ensuring that no signs
of a struggle remained. I held my breath, terrified they would climb down to finish the job, but they
simply laughed, confident that the cold and the drop had done their work. They walked away, leaving
me to freeze to death in the silent, merciless dark.
Just as my vision began to fade into a final, heavy sleep, a bright, blinding searchlight pierced the
swirling snow. The deep, deafening rhythm of helicopter rotors vibrated through the stone ledge. A
figure began rappelling down the cliff face. It wasn’t a rescue worker in a bright orange uniform, but
a tall, elegant man wearing a heavy black woolen coat. He had silver hair, piercing steel eyes, and a
face that carried a striking resemblance to the old, faded photograph my mother had kept hidden
behind her wedding certificate for twenty-five years.
It was Adrian Cross. The legendary CEO of the Cross Atlantic Insurance Group—the very
company that held the fifty-million-dollar policy Victor had taken out on my life. And, according to my
mother's deathbed letter, my biological father.
He knelt beside me on the narrow, icy ledge, his expensive leather gloves instantly becoming
stained with my blood. When he saw my scarred, frozen face, his stoic, billionaire composure
shattered completely. “Elena?” he whispered, his hands trembling as he checked my pulse. “Hold on.
I’ve spent twenty-five years looking for you. I am not losing you to this monster.”
“My baby...” I choked out, a thin stream of blood escaping my lips before my eyes rolled back and
I slipped into complete darkness. Adrian wrapped me in a heated thermal blanket, securing me to his
chest as the winch pulled us up into the roaring sky, away from the icy grave Victor had designed for
us. He held me tightly, his steel eyes burning with a promise of absolute, unyielding retribution.
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