Chapter 6 - The Father's Arrival
The distinct sound of heavy, polished dress shoes strode purposefully into the private residential corridor.
Fifty-two-year-old Julian Vance walked briskly into the hall, loosening his silk tie with an exhausted sigh on his face.
His broad shoulders filled out his bespoke navy-blue suit, his salt-and-pepper hair still neat from hours of greeting foreign dignitaries.
He had slipped away from the gala to check on his wife and daughter after noticing both had vanished from the banquet floor.
The easy smile of a proud billionaire host vanished from Julian’s face the moment his eyes adjusted to the corridor's lighting.
He froze ten paces away, his mouth parting in utter, paralyzing bewilderment.
The warm golden sconces illuminated a scene of absolute, incomprehensible violence.
Splinters of mahogany lay scattered across the pristine marble like shrapnel from a miniature explosion.
A massive gold-framed Renaissance painting hung at a grotesque angle, its wire straining against the plaster.
A priceless porcelain vase lay shattered into fine white dust near a gouged console table.
And fifteen feet away from the wreckage lay an industrial steel claw hammer, its dark handle stained with paint and sweat.
Julian’s gaze snapped from the discarded weapon to the three women standing frozen beneath the central chandelier.
His wife, Victoria, stood in an aggressive, defensive posture, her fists raised, her eyes blazing with fierce combat energy.
Behind her, his twenty-one-year-old daughter Chloe was trembling violently, her evening dress disheveled and her eyes red from crying.
And backed against the cream wall, breathing heavily with bruised wrists and disarrayed silver hair, stood his mother.
"What... what is happening here?" Julian asked, his deep voice cracking under the weight of sheer sensory overload.
Evelyn’s demeanor transformed with terrifying, instantaneous speed.
The manic, murderous rage vanished from her face, replaced instantly by the delicate, quivering helplessness of a frail victim.
"Julian! Thank God you're here!" Evelyn sobbed, clutching her throat with trembling, pearl-ringed hands.
"Victoria... she went insane! She attacked me, Julian! She kicked me into the wall!" Evelyn wailed, pointing an accusatory finger.
Julian took a hesitant step forward, his brow furrowing as he looked at his wife in profound, agonizing confusion.
"Victoria? What did you do? Why is there a hammer on the floor?" Julian asked, his voice shaking with rising horror.
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Chloe couldn't take another second of her grandmother's monstrous theatrics.
She broke out from behind Victoria’s shoulder and rushed directly toward her father before anyone could stop her.
