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Chapter 7: The Safe Haven

Chapter 7: The Safe Haven

By midnight, the mansion was crawling with corporate lawyers, private investigators, and two plainclothes detectives. Christopher refused to let Emma stay another hour under that roof. Backed by Yvette, who fiercely stood as a witness, he packed a single suitcase for his daughter and walked out.

He moved Emma to a secluded coastal cottage three hours north of the estate—a property bought under a shell company that even his mother’s accountants didn't know about.

Yvette sat at the kitchen table of the cottage, a cup of tea cooling between her hands. "Master Christopher," she said softly, "Juliette is already talking to the district attorney. She is terrified of going to prison alone. She will implicate your mother by sunrise."

Christopher looked out the window at the dark Pacific Ocean. For his entire life, he had been conditioned to believe that the family empire was the center of the universe. Now, watching his daughter sleep peacefully on the sofa under a knitted blanket, he realized how small that universe truly was.

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