Chapter 2: The Gaslight Kingdom
The next forty-eight hours were a masterclass in psychological warfare. Julian didn't come to the hotel suite where he had dumped her. Instead, he sent flowers. He sent publicists to release statements about "Vanessa’s unfortunate collapse due to exhaustion."
He was trying to paint her as the hysterical, unstable bride. By the time Vanessa emerged from her self-imposed exile, the press had already dubbed her "The Crazed Emerald Bride." Her own family, terrified by the media narrative and Julian’s influence, stopped taking her calls.
Vanessa was alone, her bank accounts frozen by Julian’s team under a "temporary protective custody" clause he had slipped into their prenuptial agreement. He was systematically erasing her from her own life.
But he had made a fatal mistake. He underestimated the woman he had tried to exploit. Vanessa wasn't just an heiress; she was a trained forensic accountant. She had spent the last two days locked in her room, not crying, but digitizing the data she had seen on that tablet.
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She realized the "marriage" had been a cover for a corporate heist. The funds hadn't gone into a personal account; they had been moved through a shell company in the Cayman Islands that Julian co-owned with Selena.
She needed an ally. And she knew exactly who would hate Julian enough to help her: Marcus Thorne, Julian’s estranged brother, a disgraced former prosecutor who knew where the bodies were buried.
