The quiet was broken by a ghost.
While running a routine data sweep, Silas found an anomaly. A financial transaction, tiny and hidden in the labyrinth of old Thorne accounts. It was a payment to a Swiss bank, dated the day after the wedding explosion. The recipient was an account under the name "L. Wanwan."
Lin Wanwan.
The traitor from her mother's past, the girl who had been Ye Xia's false friend and eventual betrayer. Mo Chen had heard the stories. She thought the woman had faded into obscurity after her family's bankruptcy.
But this payment was recent. And it was from a Thorne account that should have been frozen.
They tracked the account. Lin Wanwan was living in Monaco, supported by a mysterious stipend. She was a socialite, a minor figure on the party scene, living far beyond any means she should have had.
It was a loose thread. A tiny, insignificant detail from a closed chapter. But Mo Chen's instincts, honed by fire and betrayal, screamed that it was important.
Why was a Thorne, on the eve of their own destruction, paying off her mother's ancient enemy?
She had to know. She had Silas book her a ticket to Monaco. She would go herself, under an assumed identity. It was a risk, stepping back into the world, but some ghosts needed to be laid to rest personally.