Chapter 5: The Custody Order
The emergency custody order arrived at 1:17 in the morning.
A family court judge signed it based on affidavits from three doctors Julianna had never met.
Each claimed she posed an immediate psychological danger to Lily.
Police officers arrived at Julianna’s townhouse ten minutes later.
They found it empty.
Elias stood on the sidewalk while cameras recorded his grief.
He wore no expression of triumph.
Only concern.
That made the performance more convincing.
At the safe house, Julianna watched the broadcast without speaking.
Lily slept on a narrow cot nearby, wrapped in Evelyn’s coat.
“She should never have been part of this,” Julianna said.
Evelyn stood beside her.
“Children are always part of the wars adults refuse to end.”
Julianna turned sharply.
“You don’t get to speak like you understand. You left me alone with him.”
Evelyn absorbed the accusation.
“I know.”
“No. You don’t.”
Julianna’s voice rose.
“I was seventeen when you disappeared. He told me you chose your work over us. He said you were reckless. Unstable. Selfish.”
“I was trying to protect you.”
“By letting him raise me?”
“I believed he would never hurt you.”
“He destroyed every person who challenged him. Why would I have been different?”
“Because he loved you.”
Julianna laughed without humor.
“That was not love.”
“No,” Evelyn admitted. “It was ownership.”
The room became quiet.
Evelyn sat across from her daughter.
“Eleven years ago, I discovered Elias had secretly connected Helix to international banking networks. The program began triggering artificial shortages, debt crises, and market panic so Thorne funds could profit from the instability.”
“You confronted him.”
“I tried to shut the system down.”
“What happened to the plane?”
“It was sabotaged. I survived because a Lantern operative warned me before takeoff. We arranged the crash report to make Elias believe I was dead.”
“You could have contacted me.”
“Helix tracked every connection around you. A message, a call, even an unexplained trip could have marked you as a threat.”
“You made the choice for me.”
“Yes.”
“You decided I was safer grieving you.”
Evelyn’s eyes filled, though no tears fell.
“Yes.”
Julianna looked away.
She was not ready to forgive.
Maybe she never would be.
But forgiveness was not the first problem.
Survival was.
Marcus joined them with a digital blueprint of Thorne Tower.
The Helix core was located six floors beneath the public basement, inside a classified data center protected by biometric locks.
Only three people had unrestricted access.
Elias.
Julianna.
And Adrian Shaw, chief operating officer of Thorne Global.
“Adrian will never help us,” Julianna said.
Marcus gave her a strange look.
“That may not be true.”
He opened an encrypted message Lantern had received twelve minutes earlier.
I CAN GET JULIANNA INSIDE.
COME ALONE.
A.S.
Julianna studied the words.
Adrian Shaw had been her father’s closest adviser for twenty years.
He had signed the false statements about her mental health.
He had attended every secret board meeting.
And when Elias had raised the cane, Adrian had been visible in the reflection of the penthouse window.
Watching from the hallway.
Doing nothing.
“It’s a trap,” Julianna said.
“Probably,” Marcus replied.
“Then why consider it?”
“Because the primary core is being erased.”
A timer appeared on the screen.
Eleven hours.
Forty-three minutes.
When the countdown ended, the central evidence inside Helix would disappear permanently.
Elias was not waiting for the board meeting.
He was burning the empire from within.
Julianna looked at Lily.
Then at the custody order bearing her father’s signature beneath the supporting declaration.
Elias had forced her into a choice.
Run with her child.
Or return to the tower and stop him.
May you like
She stood.
“Set the meeting.”
