**** What happens when a 3-year-old notices something all the adults missed?

Marcello didn't turn around immediately. He kept his eyes locked on Victoria, feeling the weight of the silicone torso in his left hand and the heavy brass casing of the cryo-box against his ribs.

"Damian," Marcello said calmly. "Vance Manor is monitored by twenty-four redundant security cameras, all linked to an offshore private cloud. If that weapon discharges, your life as a free man ends in about four seconds."

"The cameras on the third floor have been cycling a looping feed for the last forty minutes, Mr. Vance," Damian replied in a gravelly, flat monotone. He stepped fully into the room, a suppressed semi-automatic pistol leveled directly at Marcello’s chest. "Miss Sterling is very thorough when it comes to infrastructure."

Claire drew Lily tighter against her, backing slowly toward the deep shadow cast by the antique mahogany wardrobe. "Victoria, there are two hundred people downstairs. The Chief of Police is literally having an Old Fashioned in the drawing room. You cannot shoot your way out of this house."

"I don't intend to shoot my way out," Victoria said smoothly, walking over to the vanity and picking up a small gold compact to inspect her lipstick. "Damian is merely ensuring that Marcello listens to reason. We have a mutual problem, Marcello. And it can be solved with a pen, rather than a bullet."

"I'm listening," Marcello said, his body shifting slightly to position himself between Damian’s gun and Claire.

"That box doesn't contain a stolen infant," Victoria said, closing her compact with a sharp snap. "It contains Julian’s viable genetic material and the complete patent sequencing for the neuro-regeneration therapy he was developing before his... unfortunate accident."

Marcello’s eyes narrowed into slits. "Julian wasn't auditing Vance Biometrics for financial discrepancies. He discovered you were selling the core research."

"I was licensing it," Victoria corrected sharply. "To a European consortium that understands its true value. Julian was weak. He wanted to give the patents away to university research hospitals under a non-profit trust. He was going to bankrupt the family name out of some sentimental, bleeding-heart morality."

"So you drowned him," Claire whispered from the shadows, her voice laced with pure horror.

Victoria sighed, an irritated flutter of breath. "Julian drowned because he couldn't handle the reality of the world we live in. He slipped off the stern of his yacht during a storm. The coroner ruled it accidental, Claire, and that ruling stands."

"And the belly?" Marcello asked, gesturing to the silicone shell. "Why smuggle the biological samples inside a fake pregnancy?"

"Because Vance Biometrics is guarded by biometric scanners that search for conventional contraband, cases, and bags," Victoria explained with chilling pride. "No one searches the pregnant fiancée of the late CEO when she visits the private family vault to weep over his unfinished work. It was the only way to bypass the thermal imaging scanners at the security gate."

She held out her hand, palm up.

"Give me the box, Marcello. We walk downstairs. I announce that I am experiencing sudden pregnancy complications and need to be transported to my private clinic in Bern. Damian escorts me to the airfield. By tomorrow morning, the patent transfer is complete, I disappear to Switzerland with my payout, and you inherit the entire Vance real estate empire without a single contest. Julian is gone. Nothing you do tonight brings him back. Take the deal."

Lily peeked out from behind Claire’s skirt, her wide hazel eyes staring directly at Victoria’s outstretched hand.

"You dropped the papers, too," Lily said quietly.

Victoria froze. "What?"

"The blue papers with the gold stamps," Lily insisted, pointing toward the heavy mahogany wardrobe. "You pushed them under the wood floor before you put the belly in the laundry hole."

Victoria’s eyes flared with pure, murderous fury. "Damian. Shut that child up."

Damian took one step forward, raising the pistol.