Chapter 4
By Monday morning, the failed wedding was the only thing anyone in high society was talking about. Tabloids splashed photos of Victoria’s furious face across every newsstand, while financial analysts speculated wildly about Julian's tech empire. Inside his fortified Upper East Side penthouse, Julian sat in his study, completely ignoring the media circus outside his windows.
He was watching high-definition footage on his laptop, his blood running completely cold. Vance had spent the night bypassing the sophisticated jamming software Victoria had secretly installed in the penthouse’s security system. The recovered video files showed exactly what happened when Julian left for the office over the past few months.
On the screen, the elegant, charming Victoria morphed into a cold, calculating monster the second the front door clicked shut. She routinely dragged a crying Lily by the arm, shoving her into the pitch-black utility closet and locking the deadbolt. She would leave the terrified child in the dark for hours, calmly drinking martinis and making phone calls on the sofa.
"She wasn't just being cruel, Julian," Vance said, standing by the mahogany desk with a thick dossier in his hands. "We pulled the audio from those phone calls she was making while Lily was locked away. She was talking to her father, Senator Sterling, coordinating a hostile takeover of your entire company."
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Julian leaned back in his leather chair, the puzzle pieces suddenly locking together with sickening clarity. The whirlwind romance, the rushed wedding, the insistence on a joint holding company for their assets—it was never about love. It was a highly orchestrated, incredibly illegal corporate coup masquerading as a high-society marriage.
"They needed me distracted and tied to her legally before the board vote next quarter," Julian realized, his voice dangerously calm. "She was breaking my daughter's spirit just to keep her quiet while they stole my life's work." He closed the laptop, a dark, ruthless fire lighting up in his eyes.
