?Chapter 1536:


    That level of vignce was far beyond what an average tycoon couldmand. Maia’s eyes narrowed, a faint weight settling in her chest. It seemed her so-called grandfather carried an identity far moreplicated than she had expected.


    At that moment, Cade strode over briskly, now dressed in casual clothes. “Ms. Watson, please follow me.”


    Siena immediately stepped forward, cutting off Maia’s path, her body coiled tight and every nerve primed for defense. If Cade so much as twitched, she was ready to strike.


    “It’s fine,” Maia said calmly, resting a reassuring hand on Siena’s arm. “Let’s move.”


    On the fifteenth floor, the corridor outside the executive suite was lined with thick carpeting that muffled every footstep and pressed down with suffocating quiet. Cade straightened his cor, drew in a steadying breath, and lifted his hand to knock.


    Knock. Knock. Knock. Three deliberate raps.


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    “Come in.” The voice inside was low and unyielding.


    The door swung open. The suite was dim, illuminated only by a floormp that spilled a muted amber glow across the room. An elderly man strode toward them at once. His back remained straight with a soldier’s discipline, yet his pace was rushed, his steps faintly unsteady. The instant his gazended on Maia, the hawk-like sharpness in his eyes faltered, his pupils tightening in shock. Even the cane clenched in his hand trembled.


    Maia did not move, allowing the old man to study her freely while she examined him in silence. His brows and eyes bore an undeniable resemnce to the blurred impressions she held of her mother.


    Dominic said nothing, his gaze devouring her features—tracing from her brow to her eyes, lingering at her chin. He was verifying, searching for the shadow that had vanished over twenty long years ago.


    The quiet pressed in, almost suffocating. Cade, unable to endure the weight of it, nced at Siena and murmured, “Should we give them a moment and step outside?” Siena paid him no mind, standing alert as a sentry, eyes sharp as she surveyed the room.


    Atst, Dominic broke the silence. His voice was rough and trembling, as though each word scraped painfully from somewhere deep in his chest.


    “You look just like her.”


    Only a single sentence—yet it carried the gravity of decades.


    “Your nose and lips are your mother’s. And that look in your eyes… that’s your father’s from his youth.” The old man’s eyes brimmed red, twin trails of tears carving paths down his deeply lined face. “Child, I’ve searched for you for so many years. I truly believed I would never find you in this life.”


    In that instant, he was no fearsome general. He was simply an aged man standing at the end of his years.


    Maia looked at him, and a memory suddenly surfaced, ovepping with the present. That day at the hospital—an old man hovering between life and death, clutching her hand, begging her to save his granddaughter.


    The pieces clicked perfectly into ce.


    “Was that you?” Maia asked quietly. “The elderly man we rescued that day?”


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