Chapter 4 - The Sins of the Past
Julian stood frozen in the open doorway, the brisk night wind fluttering the lapels of his suit. The name caught in his throat before he could force it past his lips: Marcus Kane. The patriarch of the Kane shipping empire, and a man Julian had believed dead for over a decade.
"You died in Rotterdam," Julian said, his fingers tightening against the edge of the doorframe. "I saw the manifest. I saw the wreckage."
"You saw what you paid to see, Julian," Marcus Kane stepped fully into the dining room, his leather boots leaving faint damp prints on the polished floorboards. He glanced toward Victoria, whose skin had turned the color of ash. "Good evening, Victoria. You look remarkably well for a woman who has spent the last five years bleeding my shell companies dry."
"Marcus, please," Victoria whispered, backing away until her hips hit the edge of the sideboard. The crystal decanters rattled behind her. "We had an agreement. You were supposed to wait until the merger finalized."
"The merger is dead," Marcus stated coldly. "Just like the promises you made when you married Julian under false pretenses. Did you tell him, Victoria? Did you tell your loving husband who you were before you took his name?"
Julian’s head jerked toward his wife. "Victoria, what is he talking about?"
Victoria refused to look at him. She stared at Marcus, her chest heaving beneath her silk blouse. The polished facade of the elegant, high-society wife had crumbled entirely, revealing a desperate, cornered animal.
"She won't tell you," Marcus said, turning back to Julian. "Because if she does, she admits to treason, corporate fraud, and the deliberate destruction of my cargo vessel twelve years ago. The very vessel that carried my firstborn daughter, Julian. Your first fiancée. Clara."
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Julian felt the room tilt beneath him. Clara had died in an explosion at sea. It was the tragedy that had nearly broken him in his youth, the grief that had led him into Victoria's comforting arms two years later.
"She didn't die by accident, Julian," Marcus said softly, the venom in his voice chilling the air. "Victoria planted the device. And she didn't do it alone. She did it with the help of someone living inside this house right now."
