The Midnight Inheritance: How My Business Partner Framed Me at the Vanderbilt Gala
👉 Previous Decision: You chose to review the revised family trust documents with Clara OR you chose to shadow Marcus in the vault.
Marcus’s head snapped towards the sound. Julian held his breath, pressing himself flat against the cold stone wall, the recorder still clutched in his hand. He heard Marcus mutter something, then the sound of footsteps retreating into the vault. A moment later, Marcus emerged, scanning the empty corridor.
Julian stayed perfectly still in the deep shadows. Marcus’s eyes narrowed, a flicker of suspicion crossing his face, before he finally turned and stormed back towards the main hall.
Julian knew his time was running out. Marcus was desperate.
Indeed, by the time Julian reached the main drawing room, Marcus had already gathered three of Arthur’s more distant Vanderbilt cousins. Their faces, usually composed, now wore expressions of confusion and veiled greed.
Marcus, his voice resonating with false authority, was persuading them. “Julian O’Connell is a rogue element. He’s unstable, a danger to the family and the estate. We must protect Arthur’s legacy.”
He produced a stack of pre-prepared affidavits, crisp white pages demanding Julian be declared an unhinged trespasser, stripped of any authority, and permanently barred from the estate. The cousins, swayed by Marcus’s charm and the prospect of their own interests being protected, signed.
They then moved with Marcus, barricading the doors to the estate office, effectively cutting off the primary communication lines. The landlines were dead. A few guests nervously tried their cell phones, but the severe coastal storm had knocked out the local towers. The mansion was an isolated fortress.
Julian watched, a cold certainty settling over him. Marcus was cutting him off, isolating him completely. He couldn’t get through to any authorities from inside the estate. He needed to find external proof, the kind that couldn’t be buried or dismissed by Marcus’s influence.
He had to get out. He had to find the physical evidence of Marcus’s neurotoxin purchase, the one that linked his partner to the very poison on the blade.
➡️ Read Chapter 11 to continue the story
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