inside this odd sea-place I live in, jolting the stillness beneath the surface. A breath caught - Elena's - shaking slightly as it moved through bone and blood. One moment her heartbeat stayed calm,

to Elena. That thin strand throbbed gently, carrying what I needed - oxygen, nourishment - from her and into me. Delicate as a thread, yet stronger than anything else could ever be. This was it: the only thing keeping me here. Without her, nothing. Her voice had reached me just seconds ago, proof she was alive now, unlike before. Back then, in the time that came first, Elena Vale passed away long before they killed me. That quiet moment at her graveside, where I once thought sickness took her, now felt like a lie. What really happened twisted deeper than fever or medicine could explain. Each thread led to one name: The Bloodline Project. Dr. Graves mentioned it so casually - like naming the weather. Yet behind those words sat truths I couldn't unsee anymore. Family wasn't what I'd been told. Hidden patterns clicked into place when silence finally broke. It wasn't luck that brought me here. Not destiny either. A choice - clear, fixed - had shaped it. Inside this tiny form, untouched by life, my mind settled in. All of who I was - Adrian Vale - pressed into fresh flesh. The past pulled me backward. To a time before breath, before name. Before the world expected anything from the next Vale. Hidden deep within me lingered every truth I'd dug up before. Not one slip forgotten. Each lie told behind closed doors sat sharp in memory. Where Victor twisted numbers, that stayed clear. The faces of those who took money under the table - etched. Even now, names surfaced: rivals smiling at dinners while signing deals beneath the surface. What seemed loyal often bent toward profit. Trust wore thin when fortunes shifted. Old patterns refused to fade. A mind full of secrets from a world built on billions now lived in something small enough to fit in a palm. That person - once calling shots across continents - was curled up, tiny, helpless. Understanding it felt like trying to hold smoke. A planner of empires, decisions shaping nations, now floating where nothing made sense. Heavy silence pressed down, not loud, just deep. Frozen fear settled deep, thicker than silence. Not just lingering, but twisting into something sharp beneath the ribs. Inside stone walls where loyalty bled out on marble floors, life pushed forward despite everything. Men here slit throats of kin without blinking - power always came first. A man named Vic

"Prepare the operating room then - because if Adrian Vale's mind is truly