Chapter 1 PROLOGUE
PROLOGUE
The Night Everything Burned
The rain poured heavily that night, with thunder and lightning.
Sixteen-year-old Damian Cole stood barefoot on the cracked porch of his family's small house, his chest heaving, and his fists clenched so tightly his nails cut into his palms.
Inside, his mother's screams filled the entire house. It was a high, broken wail that broke him completely.
Damian's stomach churned at every sound his mom made. She hadn't stopped screaming since the news broke and he didn't know what to do.
His sister, Maria, was... Gone.
Not just gone... but ruined. She'd been violated and humiliated, which drove her to the edge until she chose death over the shame forced upon her. She jumped off her workplace building that afternoon to her death.
And the monster who did it... Victor Lancaster, the man who owned half the city, the man who walked around untouchable and smug smiles... was behind it.
Damian could still see her, pale and trembling, when she whispered to him the truth days earlier. Her sobs, her shaking hands, and her pleading: "Don't... Don't tell anyone, Dame. He'll kill us all. He's a monster!"
He should have protected her. He should have done something. But he was too young, too powerless. And now...
A crash inside the house jolted him. He turned and rushed in just in time to see his father... strong, steady, and calm, David Cole... now slam his fist into the wall in anger, his knuckles splitting open.
"Monster! He's a monster! He killed my baby! I know... They'll cover it up," his father spat, pacing the tiny kitchen. His eyes burned with fury and grief. "Victor Lancaster owns the police, the courts, and even the press. He killed her as surely as if he pulled the trigger himself."
Damian swallowed the bile in his throat, the words cutting deeper than the rain outside.
"We can't let him get away with this," Damian said hoarsely.
His father's face softened for a moment, his gaze falling on Damian... his only son, barely a man yet already carrying too much. "We'll fight, son. I will do everything in my power to bring that bastard to justice. I'll go to the authorities. I'll - "
The front door suddenly burst open with brute force.
Damian's world instantly froze.
Men in black suits swarmed inside. Their faces were blank, but their purpose was clear. Victor had sent them.
"David Cole," one of them barked. "You should've kept your mouth shut."
Damian lunged forward, but his father shoved him back. "Run, Damian!" he roared. "Take your mother -"
A gunshot suddenly split the air, and blood sprayed across the kitchen wall.
His father collapsed, his eyes wide with shock, and his lips still parted as if to give one last command.
"No!" Damian's scream was piercing, raw, and strangled. "Dad!"
Another shot rang out, and his mother fell silent... not dead, but broken, her screams fading into a hollow whimper as she crumpled into a corner, rocking back and forth.
The men stormed out as quickly as they had come, leaving the house in ruins. They might not have cared about a broken mother and a teenage son. There was nothing they could do anyway. Killing them would be a waste of their bullets.
Damian dropped to his knees beside his father's body. The warmth of the blood seeped into his skin, sticky and suffocating. His chest heaved as he looked at the man who had always been unshakable, now lying cold on the kitchen floor.
Tears blurred his vision, but beneath the grief burned something darker. Hotter! Sharper!! Hatred!!!
Slowly, Damian lifted his father's lifeless hand and pressed it to his chest. His voice was a whisper at first, then a growl, then a scream that rattled the broken windows.
"I swear on your blood, on Maria's soul, on every tear my mother sheds... I will destroy Victor Lancaster. I will rip everything he loves from his hands. I will not rest until he feels what we feel tonight. I swear it."
The storm outside howled louder, as if sealing his vow.
And... That was the night Damian Cole died.
And the man who would one day become the most feared, faceless billionaire in the country was born.