Chapter 3 - The Poisoned Accusation
The silence that followed Victoria’s accusation was heavier than the water dripping from Julian’s soaked sleeves.
Dozens of guests recoiled, their whispers erupting like a swarm of angry hornets around the banquet perimeter.
"He pushed her off the balcony! I saw everything with my own eyes!" Victoria shrieked, falling dramatically to her knees near Marcus.
Marcus froze in his tracks, his tall, muscular frame stiffening as his aristocratic jaw set into stone.
His piercing gray eyes flicked from his trembling, waterlogged daughter to his younger brother kneeling over her.
Julian looked up, his brow furrowing in utter, disbelieving shock at the monstrous words echoing across the terrace.
"Victoria, what the hell are you saying?" Julian demanded, his deep voice trembling with sudden outrage.
"You coward! You thought nobody was looking!" Victoria sobbed, burying her face into Marcus’s silk lapel.
"I walked onto the balcony to bring Elena her birthday present, and Julian was towering over her in a violent rage!"
Victoria looked up at Marcus, her icy blue eyes wide and glistening with fabricated agony.
"He was screaming about the inheritance, Marcus! He grabbed her dress and threw her over before I could stop him!"
Elena tried to lift her head from the wet stones, her voice trapped in a throat raw from pool chemicals.
"Dad... no... that's not..." Elena gasped, but another violent coughing fit seized her lungs, cutting her off.
Marcus’s face transformed from shock into an expression of raw, unbridled, animalistic fury.
Veins bulged along his neck, his hands clenching into white-knuckled fists at his sides.
All the repressed sibling rivalries, corporate paranoia, and possessive fatherly instincts exploded within his chest simultaneously.
"You touched my daughter?" Marcus growled, his voice dropping into a guttural, terrifying register.
"Marcus, listen to me for one second! I was down here by the bar when she fell!" Julian shouted, rising to his feet.
Water cascaded from Julian’s charcoal trousers, splashing onto the marble as he held his hands up in self-defense.
"Don't lie to me, Julian! Victoria watched you throw her!" Marcus roared, closing the distance between them with predatory strides.
Several wealthy guests backed away in panic, whispering frantically into their smartphones as the spectacle escalated.
Victoria remained on the ground, but beneath her trembling fingers, her lips curved into a faint, undetectable smirk.
She had calculated this moment meticulously, knowing Marcus’s blind temper was his greatest fatal flaw.
Elena reached out a trembling hand toward her father’s polished leather shoes, desperate to break the trance of deception.
"Dad, please... listen to Julian..." she rasped, but her faint words were drowned out by the escalating shouting.
Marcus didn't look down at Elena; his vision had narrowed entirely to the brother he believed had betrayed him.
"I brought you into my home! I gave you everything! And you try to murder my only child?!" Marcus bellowed.
"Are you out of your mind?! I just pulled her out of the water! I saved her life!" Julian yelled back, standing his ground.
"You threw her in so you could play the hero when you realized someone saw you!" Victoria screamed from behind Marcus.
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That final lie struck Marcus like a match tossed onto dry kindling.
A guttural roar tore from the billionaire’s throat as he launched himself forward across the wet stones.
