Chapter 11 - The Shadow Partner
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That night, while the rest of the house slept, I met with my private security chief, Thomas Vance—a former special forces operative who had managed my corporate security for over a decade.
We sat in my study, surrounded by printouts of the financial trail tied to Sterling Holdings—the firm that had posted Vanessa’s two million dollar cash bail.
“We traced the wire transfer, Adrian,” Thomas said, tossing a folder onto my desk. “The cash didn't come from an offshore account. It came from a private account right here in the city.”
I opened the folder. The name on the account jumped out at me immediately.
Julian Sterling.
My breath caught in my throat.
Julian Sterling was a senior partner at one of the most prestigious estate-planning law firms in the state. More importantly, Julian had been my late wife’s personal family attorney—the very man who had drafted Sarah’s trust fund documents six years ago.
Everything suddenly clicked into place with horrifying clarity.
Vanessa hadn't picked my family by coincidence. She hadn't bumped into me 'accidentally' at a charity gala nine months ago.
She had been placed in my path by Julian Sterling.
Julian knew every detail of my late wife’s inheritance. He knew the exact legal loopholes required to trigger the forty-five million dollar payout. He couldn't access the money himself as the estate trustee, so he hired a professional con artist to marry me, poison me, and eliminate my heirs.
“Julian Sterling,” I whispered, my blood turning to liquid fire. “The man who sat at my wife’s funeral and held my hand.”
“He’s the architect,” Thomas confirmed grimly. “Vanessa was just his boots on the ground. And now that she’s out on bail, they’re meeting in secret.”
“Where?” I demanded, looking up at Thomas.
Thomas pulled a satellite tracking map up on his tablet screen. A red blinking dot was pulsing near an abandoned industrial marina on the edge of the city.
“Her court-ordered ankle monitor shows she’s at her registered apartment,” Thomas explained with a cold smirk. “But my boys placed a secondary GPS tracker under her getaway car when she left the courthouse. She spoofed her ankle monitor signal using a frequency jammer Julian provided.”
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“She’s breaking her bail conditions right now,” I said, standing up from my desk.
“She’s meeting Julian to plan her exit strategy,” Thomas corrected. “If we go there now with the police, we catch them both red-handed.”
