"The auction," Aylin remarked.

"Exactly. Or perhaps something larger. He is more paranoid than I’ve ever witnessed. He suspects that something is on the horizon, but he is unclear about what or when."

"Good," Zayden said with a cold tone. "Let him be suspicious. Let him prepare. It won’t make a difference. In two days, his entire empire will collapse."

"One last piece of advice," Alexander mentioned. "When you do confront him, when you face him directly, use his memory loss to your advantage. Tell him events that never took place. Blend truth with falsehoods. Make him doubt his own memories. Make him question his own sanity. Psychological warfare will dismantle him more swiftly than any physical attack."

Aylin felt a chilling sense of satisfaction at that suggestion. "Duly noted."

"I will forward those records to you within the hour," Alexander said. "Everything that proves I wasn’t in the country when Marcus died. And," he paused, "I’m sorry, for your mother, for my involvement in all of this. I realize it doesn’t change anything or mend what I shattered, but I am sincerely sorry."

Aylin remained silent. There was nothing to say.

Zayden ended the call.

They sat in silence for a long moment, absorbing everything.

Finally, Aylin spoke up. "He might not even remember them. My parents. The people whose lives he ruined."

"Maybe not," Zayden said quietly.

"And someone else killed my dad. Someone I don’t know. Someone who’s still out there."

"Yeah."

Aylin looked at him. "So what do we do now?"

Zayden pulled her in closer. "We finish the mission. We take down Alpha and Maksim. We save those fifteen girls. We break apart the trafficking networks. And then," he paused, "we find out who killed your dad. We won’t stop until we get to the bottom of it."

"And what happens when we find them?"

"They’ll face justice, just like everyone else."

Aylin nodded against his chest, but her mind was racing with questions.

Alpha had dementia. He couldn’t remember things clearly. He might not remember her parents or what he did to them.

Alexander had killed her mom but not her dad.

Someone else was responsible for Marcus’s death.

Someone she didn’t know.

Someone still alive... or maybe dead.

Aylin pulled back and looked at Zayden. "Once this is all over, after we deal with Alpha and Maksim, I want to find out who killed my dad."

"We will," Zayden promised. "Together, we’ll find the truth."

She believed him.

*****

An hour later, Alexander’s files showed up.

The flight records from five years ago laid out when he came and went from Paris. There were hotel receipts that matched the exact dates of Marcus’s death. Along with passport stamps confirming his international travel.

These documents showed that Alexander Kane was on an entirely different continent when Marcus Alston’s car went off that cliff.

Proof that someone else was responsible for his death.

Aylin looked at the documents on her screen and added another name to her list.

A blank spot.

Unknown killer.

Marcus Alston’s murderer. Her dad’s killer.

One day, she would fill that blank.

One day, she’d find out the whole story.

But first... she had a battle to win.

*****

The conference room was packed.

Everyone was there: Zayden at the head of the table, Aylin sitting next to him, plus Azalea, Liam, Leo, Reyes, Charles, and William. Even Ayla was there; she deserved the truth after everything she’d been through.

Zayden stood up. "Alexander just confirmed something big. He killed Sibel Alston, Aylin and Ayla’s mom, on Alpha’s orders. But Marcus Alston, their dad, who died five years ago, was taken out by someone else."

The room went quiet.

Ayla grabbed Aylin’s hand under the table.

"Someone else," Leo echoed slowly. "Not Alexander."

"Alexander was in Europe when Dad died," Aylin pointed out, keeping her voice steady. "We have proof: flight records and hotel receipts. He was nowhere near the country."

Azalea leaned in. "So who did it?"

"We don’t know," Zayden replied.

Her nails dug into her palm beneath the table, anchoring herself as the truth settled in.

"Alpha had a large network of operatives and people out in the field. Alexander has no clue who was sent to take out Marcus. And Alpha..." He paused. "Alpha might not even remember ordering it. His dementia makes his memory pretty unreliable."

Charles jumped in. "So we’re walking into a fight with a guy who might not remember half of what he’s done."

"That’s right," Zayden agreed.

Reyes said, "Somewhere out there is an unknown killer, someone who took out Marcus Alston and got away without a trace."

"Yeah," Aylin replied quietly.

William cleared his throat. "Once this is done, after we handle Alpha and Maksim, we’re going to figure out who killed Marcus. We won’t stop until we get to the bottom of it."

Everyone nodded in agreement.

Liam added, "But first, we need to win this fight."

"Absolutely," Zayden chimed in. "That brings us to our final plans. We’re hitting them tomorrow night. We’ve got twenty-four hours. Everyone needs to know their part inside and out."

*****

A few hours later, Aylin, Azalea, and Liam were holed up in the tech lab.

Three huge screens showed lines of code, network maps, security systems, and financial systems, basically, Alpha Dark’s entire digital empire.

And they were tearing it apart.

Aylin’s fingers flew over her keyboard. "I’m in his main server, the Silk Flame Consortium’s main database."

Azalea was working on another screen. "I’ve got access to his financial networks, every shell company, every offshore account, every shady deal."

Liam focused on the third screen. "I’ve broken into the communication systems. I can see every encrypted message sent through his network in the last six months."

Aylin pulled up a folder. "Auction records, client lists, transaction histories, proof of every girl he’s ever sold."

Azalea smirked. "When we kick this off tomorrow night, the whole world will see Alpha Dark for what he really is."

"Not just see," Liam corrected her. "We’re not just exposing him. We’re wiping him off the map, every file, every account, every bit of his empire, dismantled."