Chapter 20: Don’t Take My Children

Alexander Rington stands in the middle of the glass-walled Château de La Croix conservatory. Silence engulfs the room, colder than the Zurich snowstorm or the dark night in Jakarta.

Two massive truths hit his consciousness simultaneously: the secret archive documents in Eleanora’s black leather folder reveal Olivia’s past as the head of genetic engineering, along with recordings of the Vanguard guards’ massacre in Geneva.

"No way," Alexander’s voice whispers almost inaudibly, like a raspy whisper from his lungs still burning from toxic smoke. "Olivia would never hurt her own children."

"She’s not hurting them, Alex," Eleanora De La Croix replies as she steps closer to the glass table, her eyes burning with clear concern. "She needs Ethan and Stella alive. The absolute biological key sought by the Ashford clan and the black market network for the past decade is embedded in their DNA structure. Olivia isn’t just a researcher; she’s the main architect who encoded that genetic lock."

Alexander spins around, his silver eyes flashing sharply. He glares at Daniel, who still holds his trembling tablet.

"Where is Victoria’s private jet flying from Geneva?" Alexander demands, his voice cold and commanding, stirring the air around them.

Daniel swallows awkwardly, his fingers dancing across the wireless control screen. "Vanguard satellite tracking confirms the jet is flying over the Mediterranean. Its route points straight toward Monaco’s airspace, to the old underground laboratory site where the explosion happened seven years ago."

Alexander pulls out a tactical rifle and gear from Daniel’s diplomatic bag, ignoring the pain spreading from his gunshot wound in his shoulder. "Get the combat helicopter ready. We leave now."

"Wait, Alexander!" Eleanora stops him, grabbing his black coat. "You can’t storm Monaco alone with those injuries! The underground facility there has been rebuilt by the Ashford consortium into a military fortress with hundreds of mercenaries!"

Alexander turns sharply, his silver eyes cold. "I don’t care if the entire European army guards that place, Eleanora. If Olivia has betrayed me, I’ll get the truth straight from her. And if she threatens Ethan and Stella, I’m the one who ends her life."

Eleanora looks into Alexander’s unyielding silver eyes, sighs deeply, and offers a thin, decisive smile. "Then you won’t go alone. The De La Croix tactical air fleet is already on standby at the main runway. We finish this past once and for all—together."

Three hours later.

The night sky over Monaco’s Riviera is clouded with pitch-black darkness, no stars shining through. The waves of the Mediterranean crash violently against jagged limestone cliffs with thunderous roars.

Alexander parachutes from the helicopter’s rope, landing on the slick stone surface. Behind him, Daniel and eight special forces personnel arrive swiftly, armed with silenced assault rifles.

Eleanora leads from the middle, holding an optical frequency scanner that hacks the massive steel door’s access code wirelessly.

The concrete gate creaks open silently, without engine noise. Cold nitrogen smoke billows out from the tunnel, carrying the sterile chemical scent that triggers bad memories in Alexander.

"Internal perimeter security systems have been disabled from within," Daniel whispers, checking radar indicators on his tactical helmet. "Someone with the highest authority level unlocked all the barricades for us."

"Olivia..." Alexander breathes as he chambers his weapon, leading his team into a futuristic concrete corridor lit by dull white neon.

Victoria Ashford wears an elegant white suit, holding a cryo-stasis data transmission device. Next to her, Olivia Carter stands poised, dressed in a blood-stained gray silk gown.

"You’re pushing too far for a man who’s been near death twice in a week, Alexander," Victoria’s melodic voice echoes through the atrium’s loudspeakers, dripping with irritating superiority.

Alexander steps into the atrium, aiming his gun directly at Victoria’s chest, his silver eyes locked on Olivia’s figure.

"Hands off my kids, Victoria!" Alexander’s voice booms, echoing through the glass walls.

Olivia slowly stops tapping her keyboard. She turns, gazing at Alexander standing three meters in front of her, her bloodstains visible through her bandages.

No remorse, no fear. Only coldness remains in her stare.

"You’re ten minutes late, Alexander," Olivia says. Her voice sounds strange—detached, emotionless, lacking the warmth that used to lull him to sleep.

"Why, Olivia?!" Alexander screams, his chest pounding with pain and raw anger. "Seven years we build a life together! Seven years I risked my life to protect you and the kids from the Rington clan! Is all our love, sacrifice, and memories just a fake?!"

Olivia steps up to the operating table’s edge, eyeing Alexander without blinking.

"Our wedding in London, the safe house in Zurich, all our tragic love story—those were the best-scripted lies I ever told you, Alex," Olivia whispers with a deadly smile. "You never saved me from the laboratory seven years ago. I chose you as the best physical vessel to raise Ethan and Stella until their genetic codes fully mature."

Those words hit like a poisonous dagger straight into Alexander’s heart. He squints, holding back emotional pain that threatens to tear his soul apart.

"Using your own children’s blood as experimental material?" Alexander’s voice trembles, ragged.

"They’re not just ordinary kids, Alexander," Victoria’s voice comes from behind the console, her twisted laughter rising as she lifts a glass tube filled with pure golden serum, freshly processed from Ethan and Stella’s blood.

"This serum is the key to the ultimate biological immunity—making its bearer resistant to all synthetic toxins in the world!"

Victoria places the serum in a sealed titanium case.

"And now," she continues, "the extraction process is only ten percent complete. The remaining ninety percent of Ethan and Stella’s blood samples will be taken at our main lab in Paris."

"Over my dead body!" Alexander roars, pulling the trigger.

Before his bullet hits Victoria, Olivia presses a button on her wrist.

A thick bulletproof hydraulic glass barrier slams down rapidly from the floor, isolating the operating table and main console from Alexander’s position! His bullets shatter against the reinforced glass.

At the same time, Eleanora and her tactical team shoot at Ashford’s guards emerging from the side corridor, sparking a brutal firefight outside the glass barrier.

Behind the thick glass wall, Victoria carries the titanium case with the golden serum, retreating toward a special submarine elevator.

Olivia approaches the unconscious Ethan and Stella on the stretcher, lifting their bodies onto a special mobile platform.

Before entering the elevator with Victoria, Olivia stops at the thick glass wall separating her from Alexander.

Alexander slams his bloodied fist against the steel, desperately staring at Olivia.

She presses her palms to the glass opposite him, gazing into Alexander’s silver eyes for the last time.

"Forgive me, Alex," Olivia whispers silently from behind the glass, her eyes shimmering with tears before her cold gaze returns.

She pulls a diplomatic ID card made of pure gold, embossed with the ancient imperial symbols of old European dynasties, from her pocket and presses it to the glass.

On the card, her true name and photo are etched clearly.

Alexander’s eyes widen in shock, breath catching as he turns to look at Eleanora, who is shooting nearby.

Eleanora stops her gunfire, slowly lowers her weapon, and offers a cold, identical smile to Olivia’s behind the smoke and gunfire.

"Welcome to the real game, my brother-in-law," she whispers softly.

On the main console’s screen, a bright red countdown suddenly appears:

[NUCLEAR REACTOR CORE MELTDOWN IN 00:00:30]

"This facility will be destroyed in thirty seconds. All evidence of the De La Croix dynasty’s experiments will be erased."