Chapter 6 - The Whispering Shadows
Julianna felt as though the floor beneath her feet had suddenly turned into an abyss. Her mind raced frantically, replaying the moment she pushed Eleanor, the sound of the shattering glass, and the small black dome camera she had ignored because she thought the guard had disabled it.
"You... you lied to me," Julianna stammered, backing away from the desk toward the center of the study. "You told me the dining room cameras were offline for maintenance!"
"I told you the estate cameras were offline," Marcus corrected, standing up to his full height. "I never said anything about my private internal system. I installed that specific camera forty-eight hours ago, right after I caught your private security guard trying to access the estate’s main network hub."
Julianna reached into her pocket, her fingers closing around a small, silver velvet box she had retrieved from her room earlier. Her knuckles turned white. "Marcus... please. Think about this. If that footage goes to the police, I go to prison for attempted murder. But if I go down, I won't go down alone. I have copies of the offshore bank transfers bearing your signature!"
Marcus chuckled—a dark, melodic sound that chilled Julianna to the bone. He took a slow, deliberate step toward her.
"Do you really think those signatures mean anything?" Marcus asked smoothly. "Marcus Vance doesn't sign offshore accounts, Julianna. You forged them. And with your history of psychiatric treatment and financial desperation, no jury in the country will believe a word that comes out of your mouth."
Suddenly, the study door clicked open.
A young nurse, pale and sweating profusely, rushed into the room without knocking. "Mr. Vance! Forgive me, but... it's the ICU downstairs! Someone just cut the main power feed to the neonatal incubators!"
Marcus’s head snapped toward the nurse, his calm composure fracturing for a brief second. "What?!"
"The back-up generators failed to kick in!" the nurse cried. "The baby's oxygen supply has stopped! Dr. Harrison is trying to manually pump air into her lungs, but the emergency doors to the nursery have locked from the inside!"
Julianna’s eyes flashed with a sudden, vicious realization. She hadn't ordered the power cut—which meant there was a third player moving in the shadows of the estate tonight. Someone who wanted the baby dead just as much as she did, but was willing to burn the entire house down to achieve it.
Without another word, Marcus shoved past the nurse and sprinted down the hallway toward the subterranean medical wing.
Julianna stood alone in the study for three seconds. Her eyes landed back on Arthur’s hand-written ledger lying open on the mahogany desk. She lunged forward, grabbed the heavy book, and threw it directly into the roaring flames of the fireplace. The ancient paper caught fire instantly, curling into black, ash-filled embers.
"Burn," Julianna hissed, watching the evidence of her financial crimes disintegrate. "Burn it all."
She turned and ran out of the room, taking the secondary service stairs that led down into the basement. If the estate was falling into chaos, she needed to secure her emergency passport, her diamond stash, and ensure that Eleanor never woke up from that coma to speak a single word.
Down in the dark, emergency-lit corridors of the basement, the red danger lights were flashing in rhythmic pulse. The air was cold, smelling of ozone and burning copper wire. As Julianna reached the threshold of the medical wing, a shadowy figure stepped out from behind the electrical control panel, holding a heavy steel crowbar.
Julianna stopped dead in her tracks, her breath catching in her throat.
The figure turned around. The pale red emergency light illuminated his face.
It was Thomas—the head of estate security whom Julianna had bribed earlier that evening. But Thomas was not wearing his security uniform. He was dressed in dark tactical gear, and his face was covered in fresh, dark scratches.
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"Thomas?" Julianna whispered, stepping back. "What are you doing? I paid you to turn off the cameras, not disable the power!"
Thomas looked at her with hollow, bloodshot eyes. "You paid me fifty thousand, Miss Julianna. But the Swiss Syndicate paid me two million to make sure no Vance heir leaves this house alive tonight."
