Eleanor stepped onto the grand marble steps for a victory photo, only to find her path blocked by a filthy, brown-haired boy in a stained, oversized T-shirt.
“My grandfather sent me,” the boy stated, his dark eyes locked onto hers. “This is my house.”
Eleanor looked down from her pedestal, diamonds glittering against her elegant white gown. A cruel, dismissive smirk twisted her lips. “We don’t take beggars. He’s dead.”
Leo didn’t flinch. A small scratch on his dirty cheek caught the daylight as he slowly raised a thick brown envelope, secured by a heavy, crimson wax seal.
“He said you’d lie,” Leo replied, his voice chillingly calm for a ten-year-old.
Before Eleanor could summon the guards, a towering, bald man in a sharp black suit and black leather gloves stepped up beside her. It was Silas—the family’s ruthless executor, the man Eleanor had secretly paid millions to ensure Alexander’s grandson never returned.
Silas snatched the envelope from Leo’s hands.
Eleanor’s smug smile vanished. She loudly gasped, the breath violently leaving her lungs as her jaw dropped. She recognized that crimson wax. It wasn’t just a will. It was the Sterling *Blood Seal*—a legendary failsafe containing irrevocable proof of every financial crime and forgery Eleanor had committed to steal the empire.
She looked at Silas, expecting him to burn it. But Silas didn’t move to destroy the letter. He didn’t grab the boy.
Instead, he turned his cold, calculating gaze to Eleanor. He had never been her man. Alexander had ordered Silas to hide the boy in the shadows, waiting for this exact day—waiting for Eleanor to publicly claim the estate so her trap would finally snap shut.
“He is the sole heir,” Silas commanded, his voice echoing like a death knell. “Vacate the premises.”
Eleanor stumbled back, her diamond necklace suddenly feeling like a noose. She hadn’t inherited an empire. She had just walked straight into a ten-year trap.