Chapter 6 - A Web of Lies
Julian’s hands remained raised, his knuckles white in the cold basement air. His mind raced, replaying every moment of the past three years. Clara’s quiet smile, the way she had studied the paintings in the Sterling gallery, the gentle, lingering sorrow in her eyes whenever she looked at the family portraits. It hadn't been awe. It had been scrutiny.
"You're lying," Julian choked out, though the truth was already gnawing at his gut. "Clara loved me. She loves me."
"Love is a bourgeois luxury that people of our standing cannot afford," Evelyn scoffed, her gaze sweeping over the sterile equipment that lined the hidden vault. "She found Elena’s journal in the asylum after the poor creature finally died. Clara discovered that the child who was stolen—the boy who inherited the Sterling fortune—was her own cousin. She didn't marry you for love, Julian. She infiltrated this family to reclaim the empire that belonged to her aunt’s bloodline."
Julian took a slow breath, trying to steady the violent trembling in his chest. "And you? What did you do to Elena?"
Evelyn’s face hardened into stone. "I did what was necessary to preserve this house. Your father was weak, plagued by scandals and bad investments. It was my mind, my strategic alliances, that turned the Sterling name into a multi-billion-dollar empire. I earned this legacy! And I will not allow a vengeful girl or her bastard offspring to tear it down with old scandals."
She motioned to the two guards with a subtle flick of her wrist. "Bring him upstairs. Confine him to the east wing. Take his phone, his keys, and disconnect the internal communications."
"You can't keep me here," Julian said, his voice dropping into a dangerous, icy register. "The hospital staff know I was there. Dr. Vance knows what Clara was suffering from."
"Dr. Vance owes his position, his license, and his entire family foundation to my charitable trust," Evelyn said, stepping aside to let the guards flank Julian. "He has already altered the intake report. As far as the public record is concerned, Clara suffered an acute placental abruption caused by a pre-existing medical condition. The police will never receive a referral."
The two men closed in, reaching for Julian’s arms.
Julian didn't wait.
Using the narrow confines of the vault doorway to his advantage, he drove his elbow backward into the face of the guard on his left, shattering the man's nose with a sickening crunch. The guard groaned, staggering backward into the metal racks of old medical files, sending dozens of folders cascading to the floor.
The second guard lunged, raising his weapon, but Julian grabbed the heavy iron ledger from the desk and smashed it across the man's jaw with all his weight. The man stumbled, his gun discharging with a deafening crack that ricocheted wildly off the damp masonry walls.
May you like
Evelyn shrieked, stumbling back into the corridor.
Julian didn't look back. He snatched the dropped firearm from the floor, bolted past his mother’s reach, and sprinted up the cold stone stairs into the darkness of the upper manor.
