The train pulled away, leaving behind nothing but cold steel tracks and the soft throb of fear in Jade's chest.
She hadn't run.
Not really.
She'd chosen to move first for the first time since all this began.
The paper Elena had slipped into her coat burned in her pocket.
Santiago Cardenas.
A name that shouldn't exist.
A name her mother had erased.
A name Jake never mentioned.
And the coordinates scribbled beside it?
They led somewhere far beyond Veloria's glittering skyline, past the crime-riddled docks, past the crooked cops and the cartel ghosts.
She was going to find the truth.
Even if it killed her.
Back in the penthouse, Jake was chaos wrapped in control.
"Track every camera from the south terminal to the inner suburbs," he barked at Luca. "I want eyes on her in ten minutes."
Luca didn't blink. "She's smart. She wore a burner hoodie, no trace."
Jake slammed his fist into the table. The sound echoed like thunder.
"She's mine. Find her."
Jade's train ride ended in a forgotten industrial town on the city's edge, a skeleton of what Veloria could become if the wrong men stayed in power.
Dust, rust, and silence.
The coordinates led her to an abandoned church. The stained glass was shattered. A cross lay broken in the dirt.
Inside, a single figure sat in the pews.
An old man.
Cigarette smoke curled around him like a halo.
"You have her eyes," he said without looking at her.
Jade stepped forward cautiously. "Are you Santiago?"
He nodded once. "Lucia's girl. I wondered when you'd come."
He didn't offer warmth. He didn't offer lies.
Instead, he told her everything.
About her mother.
About the syndicate.
About the bloodline built on secrets, silence, and sin.
Lucia Cardenas hadn't just defected from a cartel.
She *built* one. In silence. In shadow.
"She tried to walk away," Santiago said, voice rasping. "But power doesn't let go. Neither do men like Jake Valerio's father."
Jade's breath caught. "You're saying Jake's family knew her?"
"Jake's father wanted her dead."
Back in Veloria, Jake sat in the dark, staring at the only photo he had of Lucia.
Jade's mother.
The woman who knew his family's darkest secrets.
And now, Jade was chasing ghosts that could unravel everything.
At the church, Santiago handed Jade a small flash drive.
"She left this for you. If you're smart, you'll destroy it."
Jade stared at it. "Why would I destroy the truth?"
"Because some truths aren't weapons. They're wars."
She returned to Veloria that night.
And Jake was waiting.
Not in the penthouse.
But at her art shop.
When she walked through the back door, he was already inside, leaning against the table, hands clenched.
The tension was deadly.
"You ran," he said.
"I needed answers."
"You could've died."
"I could've lived a lie."
They stared at each other, neither backing down.
Finally, she held up the flash drive.
"I know what your father did."
Jake's expression didn't change.
But his voice did.
"Then you know what I'll do to protect you from it."
The silence between them throbbed with danger. Not because Jade feared Jake but because, for the first time, she wasn't sure she trusted him.
He stepped forward slowly, gaze fixed on the flash drive in her hand.
"Where did you get that?"
"From Santiago. My mother trusted him. I guess she knew you wouldn't tell me the truth."
Jake's jaw clenched. "I kept things from you to protect you."
"No," she said, voice sharp, "you kept them because you were afraid I'd walk away if I knew who you really were."
That struck a nerve.
Jake moved closer, close enough that she could feel the heat of him, the restraint in his body as he stopped himself from grabbing her.
"You think I'm afraid of losing control?" he whispered.
"No," she said, barely breathing, "I think you already have."
Jake didn't sleep that night. Not even a second.
He watched from the window of the penthouse as Veloria glowed below, a city pulsing with filth, fire, and blood.
Jade slept in the next room. He didn't dare touch her. Not tonight.
She had the flash drive under her pillow. And even if he could break steel with his hands, he wouldn't touch it.
Because part of him was scared of what else Lucia Cardenas left behind.
When morning came, Jade was gone again.
Not missing.
Just… gone.
She left a note on the counter.
"Don't come after me. I'll come back when I'm ready. ..J"
Jake stared at it for a long time.
Then he burned it.
..
Jade sat alone in the back room of Miss Lottie's art shop, laptop open, headphones in. The flash drive sat in the USB port like a detonator.
She hovered over the folder titled "SAINT//Lucia".
Then clicked.
Inside were documents, voice recordings, and encrypted files. But one thing stood out immediately, an audio clip labeled:
"Confession - 1997"
She pressed play.
Her mother's voice, younger, but steady.
"If you're hearing this, it means they've found her. My daughter. You'll want to use her. You'll want her blood for leverage. But she is not your key. She is your ruin."
Jade sat frozen.
Lucia's voice continued:
"There is no peace in power. No love in control. The Valerios will never change. If she trusts him, she dies."
The clip ended.
Jade sat in the dark for a long time, her heart breaking, but her spine stiffening.
Was her mother right?
Was Jake already her undoing?
Later that night, Jake received a message on a secure line only two people knew.
It wasn't from Luca.
It was from Elena.
"You want to save her? Trade. I have what she's looking for. But you'll have to come alone."
Attached: a photo of Jade, taken today… through the window of the art shop.
Jake's blood ran cold.
He picked up his gun.
Then called Luca.
"I need a location."
Jake arrived at the meet point an hour before Elena's deadline, an abandoned hotel on the outskirts of Veloria, where cartel blood still stained the walls from wars no one talked about anymore.
The building loomed, half-swallowed by shadows. No power. No movement.
Jake entered alone.
Gun holstered.
Eyes sharp.
And every instinct screaming.
She waited for him in the ballroom.
Elena, dressed in black, sitting in a dusty velvet chair like she owned the silence.
Jake didn't sit.
"You took her picture."
"I warned her first."
Jake's jaw tightened. "You made her a target."
"No," Elena said calmly. "You did, the second you let her in."
She tossed a folder onto the ground between them.
Inside: more files. Documents. A full dossier on Jade. And a second name: Rafael D'Arco.
"She's not the only heir walking around with a target on her back," Elena said. "The syndicates are waking up. They know who she is. And some of them think she can unlock what Lucia hid."
Jake crouched and picked up the file.
"And what do you think?"
"I think," Elena said, rising, "that the girl doesn't need your protection."
She stepped closer, voice lowering.
"She needs to know what she is."
Jake's voice dropped to a threat. "She's not a weapon."
Elena's smile was cold. "No, Jake. She's a legacy. And legacy doesn't care about love."
Back at the art shop, Jade stood in front of her easel.
She wasn't painting.
She was staring.
The voice of her mother echoed in her ears:
"If she trusts him, she dies."
And yet…
Her heart still whispered his name.
Jake.