Chapter 12 - The Mastermind in the ShadowsThe revelation shifted the entire board on the chessboard.
Dominic and Jessica hadn't just been petty embezzlers driven by vanity and lust; they were useful idiots acting as proxies for a corporate predator who wanted to dismantle my father’s empire from the inside.
"Julian Vance promised Dominic forty percent equity in Apex's new North American division once Vale Global's stock plummeted from the embezzlement scandal," my father explained, his gray eyes narrowing into slits of pure steel. "Dominic thought he was going to become a billionaire in his own right, free from Victor's thumb."
"And Jessica?" I asked.
"Jessica was the courier," Sterling chimed in. "Her frequent trips to Zurich weren't for fashion week. She was hand-delivering encrypted drive tokens containing corporate trade secrets to Julian Vance's European intermediaries."
I leaned back in my leather chair, looking at the city skyline stretched out beneath the glass tower.
For five years, I had believed my marriage to Dominic was simply a sad casualty of growing apart—a story of a weak man falling for the toxic flattery of a greedy best friend. To discover that my entire adult life had been surrounded by calculated treason made something cold and indestructible settle inside my chest.
"Where is Julian Vance right now?" I asked quietly.
"He’s hosting the Annual Atlantic Maritime Gala at the Grand Hyatt tonight," my father said. "He believes Dominic kept his mouth shut during his federal interrogation. He has no idea we decrypted Victor's drive."
May you like
I closed the folder with a crisp, decisive snap.
"Order my gown for tonight," I told Sterling. "It's time to pay Mr. Vance a visit."
