Chapter 14 - The Illegitimate Heir
The air inside the visiting room became suffocating as Julian’s confession sank into my mind.
Victoria Thorne was not just a ruthless social climber who had invaded my home and assaulted me; she was my first cousin.
The cruelty, the calculated seduction of my husband, the deliberate destruction of my dignity—it was all rooted in a decades-old family vendetta.
"She hated you from the day she was born," Julian muttered, his voice cracking with self-pity.
"Marcus kept her hidden in London, telling her that you and your father were living like royalty on money that rightfully belonged to her branch of the family."
"She didn't cut your hair just to hurt your pride, Clara."
"She took your hair as a trophy to send to Marcus in Zurich, proof that the legitimate line of the Vance family had been brought to its knees."
A cold, crystalline rage settled deep inside my bones, burning hotter and purer than anything I had ever felt.
"Where is the secondary ledger, Julian?" I asked, my voice deadly and precise.
"The ledger that details the sovereign debt bond."
Julian looked down at his chained wrists, shaking his head slowly.
"Victoria kept the digital keys," he murmured.
"She had a safe deposit box at the Manhattan Trust before the FBI raided her penthouse."
"The feds seized the cash and the jewelry, but they missed the encrypted drive sewn into the lining of her designer trunk."
"Why are you telling me this now, Julian?" I asked, studying his sunken features.
Julian looked up at me, his eyes filled with the pitiful realization of what he had thrown away.
"Because Marcus promised to get me transferred to a minimum-security camp in Pennsylvania if I kept my mouth shut," Julian whispered.
"Yesterday, an inmate in the yard tried to carve my throat open with a sharpened mess hall spoon."
"Marcus doesn't leave loose ends, Clara."
"He used Victoria to gut you, he used me to take the federal rap, and now he’s tying up the loose ends."
"If you don't destroy him, he will finish what he started, and none of your billions will save you."
I slowly hung up the receiver, rising from my seat without looking back at the broken wreck of the man I had once loved.
As I exited into the cold prison courtyard, my phone vibrated in my coat pocket with an encrypted message from Arthur.
May you like
"Clara, Victoria Thorne was just transferred from the Metropolitan Detention Center to a private medical facility under an emergency judicial release order."
The war had moved out of the courtrooms and into the shadows.
