Chapter 59. Shadows of Vengeance

“You know who pulled Arthur’s trigger? Your father did.”

The words struck harder than the alarms still echoing faintly through Ledger’s lower corridors.

Harper froze mid-step. Her lungs halted. Knox’s hand hovered over his comm unit, but he didn’t speak. Not yet.

She turned, and from the darkened alcove to her left, Lilah Vance stepped out—coat swirling, expression carved in stone, her face older under the sterile LED light.

“You heard me,” Lilah said evenly, as if this wasn’t the kind of revelation that could split an empire. “Your father embedded the override for Arthur’s final contingency. He didn’t just kill OPHELIA. He yanked the only lifeline Arthur had left.”

Harper’s mouth was dry. “What are you saying?”

Knox took a sharp step forward. “The contingency was built inside OPHELIA. Arthur wasn’t supposed to activate it without a full Founder code stack.”

“He didn’t,” Lilah said. “Your father rerouted the kill-switch logic. A final overri