My husband bru:tally b:eat me for three straight hours. I honestly thought I was going to die... But right in that moment, hovering on the thin line between life and death, I knew exactly who I had to contact: someone I hadn't wanted to see again for almost thirty years...

The basement door opened again, and David rushed back down, panting heavily. He held out his hand, revealing a green jade pendant, a sealed yellow envelope, and an old burner phone.

I reached out with trembling, blood-stained fingers and closed them tightly around the cool, smooth jade.

Sixteen years ago, on my eighteenth birthday, my father had pressed this exact pendant into my palm. “Victoria,” he had said back then, “if the day ever comes when you are surrounded by darkness and have nowhere left to turn, send this to Old Sal. He will answer.”

I pressed the cool stone against my cheek. "David... what really happened to my family?"

David swallowed hard, looking around the damp room. "Vance Enterprises went bankrupt three years ago, ma'am. Your parents and Thomas died in a private plane crash over the Atlantic."

"Does that sound normal to you?" I asked, my voice cold despite my weak body. "The company's financing collapsed in three days. Every powerful connection my father and brother had built over forty years disappeared overnight. There were 123 people on that commercial flight. Three were members of my family. And that same day, Julian personally called the airline's president."

David's eyes widened in sheer horror as the realization hit him. "You think... Mr. Kensington sabotage them?"

"I don't think, David. I know," I whispered. "Now take this jade to Old Sal's tailor shop on the Lower East Side. Knock three times, pause, then knock twice. Tell him Victoria Vance says the time has come."

"Who is Old Sal?" David asked.

"You don't need to know," I replied. "You've served Julian for eight years. Why are you risking your life to help me today?"

David lowered his head, a tear slipping down his cheek. "Because three years ago, when my little sister needed a heart transplant and Mr. Kensington refused to advance my salary... you paid for her surgery out of your own pocket."