“I always believed I was meant to find Maksim,” she murmurs, her back still to me. “Meant to be in his life and be his mother. The night I found him, I wasn’t even supposed to be on that side of town. Silas and I had taken a detour after averylong and life-changing trip.”
“The scavenger hunt."
She pauses and chuckles. “I did tell you about that, didn’t I?”
“One of my favorite bedtime stories,” I joke.
Not every kid grows up hearing about their aunt and uncle traveling the world, hunting names on blood contracts that included their own, and somehow living to tell the tale.
Brutally, beautifully broken.
That’s our family.
“Well, I learned things on that trip. Things that could change everything for all of us. So I took precautions.”
She turns and holds out her hand, and resting in her palm is a small black drive.
My stomach drops. I already know.
“The Ledger,” I breathe.
Aunt Leni nods slowly. “No one knows I have it. Only Silas…and now you.”
I take a cautious step forward. “What is it? What does it all mean?”
“Insurance.” She looks up at me, her eyes hardening. “For Protocol Severed Legacy.”
An unexpected shudder rolls through me. I’ve never heard of it before, but the name alone screams danger.
“Why is this so important that you’ve kept it locked up and a secret from everyone, even from my dad? And why does the Architect want it?”
“It’s not what you think,” she says, shaking her head. “This isn’t about trust. It’s about protection. Plausible deniability.” She closes her hand around the drive and steps closer. “I’m only telling you now because you need to know what you’re up against—and you need to be ready.”
I rub my temples, exhaling hard. I’m more confused now than I was upstairs. Aunt Leni must see it because she keeps talking.
“The Ledger is an encrypted digital record, Valentina, containing names and code numbers, contracts, payment routes tied to assassinations, smuggling, and covert political work spanning multiple continents. It goes back decades. Every footprint, every connected dot, including me, Silas, Derek, Kai, Athena…all of us.”
My stomach knots. “Is it... the only one in existence?”
“Of course not. But even one in the wrong hands can start a domino effect. Whoever controls it can expose, blackmail, or destroy anyone tied to The Six.”
I nod slowly. It makes sense, and it terrifies me. I’ve always thought of my family as a force, untouchable and unstoppable. But in this moment, I feel small and vulnerable to somethingmuch bigger than us. Bigger than the fierce woman in front of me.
“So what the hell is Protocol Severed Legacy?”
Aunt Leni walks back to the drawer and slides the drive inside, watching it until the metal door seals shut. “It’s how they control us,” she says, a bite to her tone. “How they erase us when the time comes to cleanse the world of those who know too much.”
“Like a contingency plan,” I say, following her back up the steps toward Uncle Silas’s office.
“Exactly. A safeguard built in from the beginning. If any member or faction becomes compromised, if we go rogue, or threaten exposure, the protocol activates.”
My pulse quickens. “Activates how?”
“Erasure.” Her tone is cold. “Physically, financially, digitally. Every trace of existence wiped clean. So we’re not just killed, we’redeleted.”
My eyes widen. “And you think The Architect…”
“No,” she says, sealing the trap door behind us. “If my guess is correct, he or she is just one moving piece.”
