Chapter 5 - The War for the WillBy midnight, the manor was quiet, save for the gentle hum of the central heating.
In the master guest suite, a private pediatrician hired by Arthur had examined Lily, treated her minor scrapes, and declared her suffering from mild malnutrition and exhaustion. After a warm bath, Lily lay asleep under heavy goose-down blankets, wearing a soft silk pajama set, her silver locket placed safely on the nightstand beside her bed.
Arthur sat in a armchair beside her bed, watching her peaceful breathing in the dim light of a table lamp.
Downstairs in the dimly lit study, a very different conversation was taking place.
Julian stood behind Arthur’s dark mahogany desk, pacing back and forth like a caged predator. Beatrice sat across from him, her face twisted in anxious fury.
“If that brat is truly Clara’s child, it changes everything, Julian!” Beatrice hissed under her breath. “Your uncle’s trust will automatically divert eighty percent of the corporate shares to her upon her eighteenth birthday! All the work we’ve done over the past eight years—gone!”
“Calm down, Mother,” Julian spat, pouring himself a double glass of bourbon. “An old man’s sentimentality doesn't hold up in court. The child has no birth certificate, no legal documentation, and Clara is dead.”
“Arthur is already ordering a rush DNA test through his private medical connections,” Beatrice warned. “The results will come back positive, and you know it.”
Julian took a slow sip of his drink, his eyes turning cold and dangerous as he stared out the floor-to-ceiling windows at the dark grounds outside.
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“Then we make sure those results never see the light of day,” Julian whispered sinisterly. “And if necessary... we remind the little girl that she should have stayed lost.”
Upstairs in the quiet room, 7-year-old Lily stirred slightly in her sleep, unaware that by crossing the threshold of her grandfather’s house, she had stepped directly into a den of wolves.
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