A Woman Worth Billions Dated the Wrong Brother novel Chapter 336

the timing

The timing

Amber POV

The hidden door refused to open.

By sunset, every one of us had tried.

Marcus entered the combinations exactly as they appeared on the map.

Professor Vance compared every symbol against the inscriptions inside the mine.

Jason and I retraced every step we had taken the first time the passage opened.

Nothing.

The kitchen team reported the same result every few minutes.

“No movement.”

“The mechanism didn’t react.”

“The symbols reset.”

Meanwhile, the team inside the mine waited beside the stone door.

Nothing moved.

Nothing clicked.

Nothing happened.

I stared at the ancient mechanism one more time.

“No…”

Jason looked at me.

“What?”

“I’ve been assuming there were only two conditions.”

He frowned.

“The code…”

“And the mechanism inside the mine.”

I nodded slowly.

“But that’s not enough.”

I ran my fingers across the worn carvings.

“The first time the door opened…”

“…something else happened.”

Professor Vance immediately became interested.

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“A third condition.”

miled.

“Exactly.”

“There has to be a third element.”

“Something we haven’t identified.”

Everyone fell silent again.

The treasure would have to wait.

Jason’s phone vibrated.

He glanced at the screen before his expression changed.

“It’s one of my Cronos contacts.”

He opened the encrypted message.

“I think you’ll want to see this.”

He handed me the tablet.

Attached was a scanned newspaper article from almost twenty years earlier.

The headline read:

Businessmen Involved in Helicopter Explosion. One Survivor.

Below it were two names.

Nikolay Vincent.

Nicolas Soly.

I immediately began reading.

The helicopter had exploded in midair while flying across a remote mountain region overseas.

Investigators at the time suspected mechanical failure.

Only one passenger survived.

According to the article…

That survivor had been identified as Nicolas Soly.

He had suffered severe burns and remained hospitalized for several months.

I looked up at Jason.

“This…”

He nodded.

“It explains everything.”

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звания

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I looked back at the article.

The survivor wasn’t Nicolas.”

Jason finished my thought.

“It was Nikolay.”

My heart began racing.

“The explosion killed the real Nicolas Soly.”

“And Nikolay…” 1

“…assumed his identity while recovering.”

His burns would have hidden his appearance.

His documents would have identified him as Nicolas.

By the time he left the hospital….

Nikolay Vincent no longer existed.

Only Nicolas Soly remained.

I slowly lowered the tablet.

“He disappeared…”

“But only because he became someone else.”

Jason continued searching through the encrypted database.

A few moments later another document appeared.

This one wasn’t a newspaper.

It was an intelligence report.

He read silently for nearly a minute.

Then looked at me.

“The helicopter didn’t crash by accident.”

My stomach tightened.

“What happened?”

“It was sabotaged.”

He turned the screen toward everyone.

Bomb residue.

Explosive fragments.

Evidence that the aircraft had been tampered with before takeoff.

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Marcus swore under his breath.

bomb…”

Jason nodded.

“The investigation was quietly closed.”

“No one was ever charged.”

Professor Vance adjusted his glasses.

“Who benefited?”

Jason opened another file.

“The timing.”

The room became quiet.

“At that exact moment…”

“…the Vincent family was choosing its next leader.”

I felt a chill run down my spine.

Jason continued.

“According to shareholder records…”

“More than half of the family’s major investors wanted Nikolay Vincent to become the next head of the Vincent empire.”

Marcus looked up sharply.

“Not Alexander?”

Jason slowly shook his head.

“No.”

“Nikolay was the favorite.”

Silence.

Everyone reached the same conclusion at the same time.

If Nikolay had become head of the family…

Alexander never would have inherited the Vincent empire.

I whispered the thought none of us wanted to say aloud.

“So someone eliminated the competition.”

Jason looked at me.

“And the only person who truly benefited…”

He didn’t need to finish.

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The 121

Alexander Vincent.

The bomb had failed to kill its intended target.

Instead…

It had erased Nikolay Vincent from the world.

Not through death.

But through a stolen identity.

I stared at the old newspaper one last time.

For nearly twenty years…

Everyone had believed Nikolay Vincent disappeared.

The truth was far stranger.

He had survived.

He had buried his own name.

And he had spent the rest of his life pretending to be his best friend.

Which left one terrifying question.

If Alexander had tried to murder his own younger brother once…

What would he do if he discovered that brother’s children were still alive?

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Nightmare

Amber POV

I had hoped the DNA results would finally put an end to the nightmare.

Instead…

They opened another door.

One we had spent months trying to keep closed.

Two weeks after the hearing, our attorneys arrived at the castle before sunrise.

Jason immediately knew something was wrong.

“What happened?”

The lead attorney placed a sealed envelope on my desk.

“The court has ruled.”

Jason opened it while I stood beside him.

His expression hardened with every line he read.

“What is it?”

He slowly lowered the papers.

“Alexander Vincent petitioned the court for an additional DNA comparison.”

My heart dropped.

“On what grounds?”

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“The judge found that, combined with the previous DNA findings and the newly presented evidence regarding Nikolay Vincent and Nicolas Soly, there is sufficient legal basis to permit the request.”

I felt sick.

Jason handed me the order.

The testing would take place…

In two weeks.

I closed my eyes.

Two weeks.

Two weeks until the secret we had fought to protect might finally come to light.

That evening Jason received an encrypted call.

Only a handful of people possessed that number.

He answered without putting it on speaker.

“I’ll listen.”

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A calm, familiar voice came through the phone.

Alexander Vincent.

“I thought you deserved a courtesy call.”