The Billionaire Pretended to Sleep So His Twelfth Maid Would Betray Him, but What She Whispered About His Dead Daughter Made Him Unlock the Room He Had Buried for Three Years

Marcus swiped the technician's keycard through the door scanner.

Click. Whirrr.

The heavy airlock door decompressed and slid open.

Ethan rushed inside the sterile room, leaving his tactical gear by the door. He dropped to his knees beside the hospital bed, his large, trembling hands gently cupping the little girl's face.

"Lily..." Ethan wept softly, tears streaming freely down his cheeks as he kissed her forehead, her cheeks, her hands. "Lily, baby, it's Daddy... Daddy's here..."

The little girl stirred gently, her long dark eyelashes fluttering open.

Her eyes were deep, brilliant hazel—the exact copy of Ethan's own eyes.

She looked at the tall man kneeling beside her bed, her brow furrowing in confusion, then widening in sudden, profound recognition.

"Daddy...?" Lily whispered, her voice tiny, raspy from disuse.

"Yes, baby! It's me!" Ethan cried, pulling her small body into his arms, holding her against his chest as if he would never let her go again. "It's Daddy, Lily! I found you!"

Lily wrapped her small arms around her father's neck, burying her face in his shoulder, sobbing softly.

"They told me you were gone," Lily wept. "The mean doctor said you forgot about me!"

"Never, Lily! Never!" Ethan vowed fiercely, kissing her hair over and over. "I never stopped looking for you! I love you more than life itself!"

Elena stepped into the room softly, tears spilling down her own cheeks as she watched the miraculous reunion.

She quickly walked over to the IV equipment, using her medical skills to carefully detach the blood lines and saline tubes from Lily's arm without causing her pain, wrapping her tiny wrist in soft medical tape.

"She's physically healthy, Ethan," Elena reported, checking Lily's pulse and pupils. "They were keeping her in a controlled, sterile environment to maintain her blood purity. She can travel."

Ethan lifted Lily into his arms, wrapping her in a warm wool blanket from the bed. Lily clung to his neck like a vise, burying her face in his chest, holding on for dear life.

"Thank you, Elena," Ethan said, looking at the former nursing student with a gaze of profound, eternal love and gratitude. "You gave me back my daughter."

"We need to go, boss!" Marcus warned from the hallway. "The facility silent alarm was just tripped!"

Red emergency lights suddenly began flashing down the corridor, accompanied by a high-pitched siren echoing through the concrete walls.

ALERT: SECURITY BREACH SUB-BASEMENT 3. CONTAINMENT LOCKDOWN IN EFFECT.

Ethan held Lily tightly in his left arm, drawing his weapon with his right hand.

"Elena, stay behind me!" Ethan commanded.

They burst out of Suite B-302 and ran toward the elevator bay.

As they rounded the corner of the circular corridor, four Vanguard security guards armed with submachine guns blocked their path, led by Arthur Vance himself, holding a chrome revolver.