"Two Children Appeared At Adrian’s Wedding And Called Him “Daddy”—Then His Bride Tried To Drag Them Away Before He Could Ask Why.

The heavy steel gates of the Sterling Manor closed behind Adrian’s silver limousine, shutting out the swarm of reporters who had followed them from the St. Regis Hotel.

Inside the private study, the fireplace crackled softly.

Nanny Maria—the woman who had raised Adrian after his mother died—was sitting on the velvet sofa, weeping tears of joy as she fed baby Mia a bottle of warm milk. Beside her, Clara sat wrapped in a plush cashmere blanket, clutching a mug of hot chocolate with both hands.

Adrian stood by the window, his tuxedo jacket discarded on a chair, his sleeves rolled up to his elbows. Standing beside him was Lucas, his chief of security and a former military intelligence officer.

"I ran the preliminary DNA match using the cheek swabs we took twenty minutes ago," Lucas said quietly, holding a tablet. "Clara is your biological daughter, boss. One hundred percent match. Mia... she's six months old. The genetic markers confirm she’s your child too."

Adrian closed his eyes, a heavy, painful wave of emotion washing over him. Six years. He had missed six years of his daughter's life. And baby Mia... Elena must have been pregnant when she disappeared—or something far more sinister had happened.

"Where is your mother, Clara?" Adrian asked, coming over to kneel beside his daughter. He took her small, cold hand in his massive palm. "Tell Daddy everything. Don't be scared."

Clara swallowed hard, her hazel eyes filling with fresh tears. "Mommy was in the gray house. On the hill with the big iron trees."

"The gray house?" Lucas frowned, checking his maps on the tablet.

"The mean men put Mommy there a long time ago," Clara whispered, her voice trembling. "They told Mommy she was crazy. They gave her medicine that made her sleep all day. But Mommy hid me in the back room with the gardener's wife, Mrs. Rosa. Mrs. Rosa took care of me."

"And baby Mia?" Adrian asked, his jaw clenching so hard his teeth hurt.

"Mia was born in the gray house," Clara explained. "Six months ago, the mean lady—the lady in the white dress from today—came to the house. I was hiding in the closet. I heard her tell the doctor to take Mia away. She said... she said Mommy was going to 'disappear forever' after the wedding."

Adrian stood up so fast his chair nearly flipped over.

"Victoria," Adrian spat, his eyes burning with a terrifying rage. "She held Elena captive."

"Mrs. Rosa helped us run away last night," Clara continued, pulling something else from her dress pocket. It was a crumpled piece of hospital notepad paper with a handwritten address in faint blue ink. "Mrs. Rosa said the mean lady was getting married today. She gave me fifty dollars and put us on the bus. She said if I found you at the big church, you would save Mommy before the bad doctor gave her the final sleep."

Lucas looked at the address on the paper. "Boss... that’s Blackwood Sanatorium. It’s a private, off-the-grid psychiatric facility fifty miles North, in the woods near Ridge Crest."

"Who owns it?" Adrian demanded.

Lucas typed rapidly on his screen. His face went pale. "It’s registered under a holding company... owned by Richard Prescott. Victoria’s father."

Before Adrian could order his team to move, the heavy oak doors of his study burst open.

Richard Prescott—the ruthless CEO of Prescott Global and Victoria’s father—strode into the room, flanked by four bulky men in dark suits.

"Adrian!" Richard barked, his face red with fury. "What the hell is the meaning of this spectacle?! My daughter is in hysterics! The press is reporting that you abandoned her at the altar for a couple of street rats!"

Adrian didn't flinch. He walked slowly toward Richard, his posture like a apex predator stalking its prey.

"Those street rats are my daughters, Richard," Adrian said, his voice dangerously low. "And in exactly thirty seconds, you are going to tell me why your daughter has been keeping their mother locked in your illegal asylum for three years."

Richard froze. A sliver of panic flashed across his eyes before he quickly forced a cold smirk. "I don't know what garbage those kids fed you, Adrian. Elena Vance was a gold-digger who lost her mind. She checked herself into a facility voluntarily because she couldn't handle—"

Adrian didn't let him finish.

In a lightning-fast motion, Adrian grabbed Richard by his silk tie, slammed him backward against the wall, and shoved his forearm against the older man’s throat!

Richard’s bodyguards immediately reached inside their jackets for their weapons, but Lucas and five armed Sterling guards instantly drew their firearms, locking laser sights onto the bodyguards' foreheads.

"Move one finger," Lucas warned calmly, "and you die in this study."

Adrian leaned in close to Richard’s face, his breath hot against the older man's ear. "If there is so much as a single scratch on Elena when I reach that sanatorium, Richard... I won't just ruin your company. I will tear your family's empire down stone by stone, and you and Victoria will rot in a federal cage for the rest of your miserable lives."