Chapter 3 - Unearthing the Past

A week passed. The society pages were ablaze with rumors about the sudden, shocking cancellation of the "Wedding of the Decade." My PR team handled it with surgical precision: Mr. Sterling and Ms. Vance have decided to part ways amicably due to irreconcilable differences.

But behind closed doors, I wasn't done. You don't threaten my mother in my own home and simply walk away with a bruised ego. I needed to know exactly who I had almost married.

Marcus walked into my private study at the estate, dropping a thick dossier onto my desk.

“You’re going to want a stiff drink for this one, boss,” Marcus said grimly.

I opened the file. The woman I knew as Chloe Vance was actually born Clarissa Vane. She wasn't the daughter of a deceased European diplomat, as she had claimed. She grew up in a trailer park in Nevada. But her modest background wasn't the crime; her history of destruction was.

“She’s a professional grifter,” I said, reading the rap sheet.

“The best I’ve ever seen,” Marcus nodded. “Before you, she was engaged to a real estate developer in Miami. He ended up in bankruptcy after she convinced him to co-sign massive loans for a bogus startup. Before him, an elderly oil tycoon in Texas. She got him to rewrite his will, and he died of a 'sudden heart attack' three months later. The family settled out of court just to get rid of her.”

My blood ran cold. She hadn't just been after my money; she was a parasite who destroyed her hosts. And she had targeted my mother because Margaret was the only person who saw through her, the only threat to her total control over my estate.

“Where is she now?” I asked.

“Living in a two-star motel in Queens,” Marcus replied. “But she’s making moves, Julian. We intercepted phone calls. She’s reaching out to Arthur Vance.”

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I smiled. A slow, predatory smile. Arthur Vance was my biggest corporate rival, a ruthless hedge fund manager who had been trying to destroy Sterling Holdings for a decade. If Chloe was going to Arthur, she was trying to sell my corporate secrets.

“Let her,” I said softly. “Let’s give them both enough rope to hang themselves.”