Chapter 12 - A Crack in the Glass
The revelation of Marcus’s return hung over the penthouse like a thick, suffocating storm cloud.
I refused to let fear dictate my actions, so I threw myself entirely into the operations of Vance Holdings.
I spent my days in the glass-walled boardroom, completely dismantling rival firms and maximizing our global assets.
I was brilliant at it, channeling all the pain of my past into a ruthless, unstoppable corporate efficiency.
But one rainy Tuesday afternoon, I found a crack in our impenetrable armor.
I was auditing a subsidiary shell company that managed the old remnants of my grandmother’s trust.
The numbers did not align.
There was a phantom drain, a systematic bleeding of funds that bypassed every single one of Julian’s sophisticated firewalls.
Someone was siphoning millions of dollars into offshore, untraceable accounts.
I printed the ledgers, my hands trembling slightly with a mixture of absolute rage and deep paranoia.
Only three people had the clearance to bypass those specific security protocols.
Julian, myself, and the firm’s chief financial officer, a man who had mysteriously vanished on vacation two days ago.
I walked out of my office, the heavy stack of papers clutched tightly against my chest.
I needed to find Julian immediately.
As I rounded the corner toward his executive suite, I heard a voice echoing from the open doorway.
It was a voice I had never heard in person, but one I instantly recognized from the surveillance files.
"You always were a sentimental fool, Julian," Marcus Vance drawled smoothly.
I stopped dead in my tracks, pressing my back flat against the cold marble wall to listen.
"Get out of my building, Marcus, before I have security throw you through the window," Julian growled.
Marcus let out a dark, mocking laugh that made my stomach churn with pure disgust.
"I will leave, little brother, but only after I take back the empire you stole from me."
"You own nothing here," Julian snapped, the sound of a heavy chair scraping against the floor echoing loudly.
May you like
"Oh, but I do," Marcus countered softly.
"I own the man who set up your wife’s car accident, and I own the truth about why you really married her."
