Chapter 5 - The Mastermind's Motive
"Get her up," Julian commanded.
Two security guards hoisted Victoria roughly to her feet, forcing her back onto the velvet ottoman. She glared up at Julian, her hair disheveled, her expensive makeup smeared with genuine tears of rage. The mask was completely gone; the sweet, angelic philanthropist was dead, replaced by a cold, cornered viper.
"Fine! You want the truth?" Victoria screamed, her voice echoing off the mirrored walls. She laughed hysterically, a harsh, grating sound. "Yes, I did it! I poisoned the brat! Because as long as that little bastard breathes, I am nothing more than a glorified mistress playing house while your late wife's bloodline inherits the entire Vance empire!"
Julian stepped forward, his eyes burning with fury. "He is six months old, Victoria. He’s an infant. How could you look at him and decide to murder an innocent child?"
"Innocent?" Victoria spat, sneering up at him. "In business, you’re ruthless, Julian! You destroy competitors without a second thought! Why shouldn't I secure my future? If you married me under a standard prenup, I would have walked away with chump change if things went south. But with a living heir tied to a trust fund that I control as his stepmother? I hold the keys to the kingdom!"
She tilted her chin up defiantly, a sickening grin spreading across her face. "And honestly, it was so easy. The regular pediatric nurse is lazy, the security guards are easily bribed with a few crypto transfers, and you were too busy staring at market charts to notice what was happening right under your nose."
Julian’s fist clenched so tightly that his knuckles turned white. For a second, his body trembled with the urge to destroy her with his bare hands. But he forced himself to breathe, stepping back and channeling every ounce of corporate coldness he possessed.
"You think you’re smart, don't you?" Julian whispered, pulling out his phone. "You think because you bypassed the nanny once, you won. But you forgot one crucial detail about my house."
Victoria frowned, her arrogant smirk faltering slightly. "What are you talking about?"
Julian tapped his screen, pulling up a secondary live feed. "Every single room in this penthouse—including the nursery, the hallways, and even this closet—is wired with independent, military-grade encrypted backup lenses that feed directly into a cold-storage vault off-site. Not even my IT director can delete them."
Julian pressed play on his phone.
Instantly, the audio system in the room began broadcasting crystal-clear sound. It wasn't just the video from the hallway; it was the audio captured by a miniature smart-tag pendant that Clara had cleverly slipped into Leo’s blanket earlier that morning—a backup safety measure the nanny used when suspicious activity first arose days ago.
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“If she won’t sign over the secondary trust allocation, leave her colder,” Victoria’s voice echoed loudly through the room, playing back a private phone conversation she had recorded with an unknown co-conspirator just two nights prior. “Once the baby is gone, Julian will be too broken to investigate. The empire will be ours.”
The color drained entirely from Victoria's face. The bravado vanished, leaving behind a shivering, pathetic wreck of a woman realizing the trap had snapped shut with her inside it.
