Chapter 6 - The Unexpected Ally
I stared at the elegant woman, recognizing her face from the extensive background research I had done before the wedding.
It was Eleanor Whitmore, Daniel’s estranged aunt, who had supposedly been living in permanent exile in Europe.
Eleanor walked forward with the terrifying grace of a predator, stopping mere inches from Patricia’s trembling face.
She demanded to know why the hired security thugs were violently manhandling her nephew’s new wife.
Patricia stammered pathetically, pointing at the diamond necklace resting in the guard’s massive hand.
She tried to repeat her fabricated story about catching me stealing the family heirlooms to fund a mental breakdown.
Eleanor laughed coldly, snatching the glittering necklace right out of the security guard’s grasp.
She held the diamonds up to the light, inspecting them with a practiced, critical eye.
Eleanor boldly announced that the diamonds were absolute, worthless fakes made of cheap cubic zirconia.
Patricia gasped in genuine shock, staring at the fake jewelry as if it were a venomous snake.
Eleanor turned to the security guards and ordered them to release me instantly or face federal kidnapping charges.
The guards exchanged a nervous glance before quickly letting go of my aching arms.
Eleanor gently took my hand and led me away from the stunned Patricia, walking us directly into the private library.
She locked the heavy double doors behind us and poured two glasses of expensive scotch.
She handed me a glass and confessed that she had been secretly investigating Daniel’s financial crimes for the past six months.
Eleanor revealed that the real three-million-dollar necklace was sitting in a secure evidence locker at the FBI field office.
She had intercepted Daniel’s courier yesterday and swapped the real diamonds with a cheap replica to ruin his syndicate payoff.
I took a burning sip of the scotch and showed Eleanor the extortion note I had stolen from Marcus at dinner.
She read the words about the forged will and the true heir, her eyes widening in sudden realization.
Eleanor whispered that Daniel’s grandfather had never intended to leave the family trust to Daniel.
The old man had secretly fathered a child decades ago, a son who had grown up in the shadows of the criminal underworld.
Marcus Thorne was not just a loan shark trying to collect a random gambling debt.
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He was Daniel’s unacknowledged uncle, the true bloodline heir, coming to violently reclaim his stolen empire.
Suddenly, a massive explosion rocked the foundation of the mansion, shattering the library windows inward.
