Chapter 2 - The House of Lies
"Evelyn," Julian said, his voice terrifyingly quiet as he stood up, lifting Maya effortlessly into his arms like she was still a little girl. "Get my security team into the study. Now."
"Julian, please!" Evelyn cried out, following him as he carried Maya up the sweeping marble staircase toward the master residential wing. "You've been gone for three months! You don't know how difficult she's been! She was failing her university classes, she was being rebellious, she was disrespecting me! I only gave her chores to teach her humility and discipline!"
Julian stopped at the top of the landing. He didn't turn around, but his shoulder muscles were tense as iron.
"My daughter was top of her class at Columbia University," Julian said, his voice cutting through the hall like a razor blade. "She spent her entire life honoring her late mother’s memory by being the gentlest, kindest person I have ever known. If you think I believe a single word coming out of your mouth, Evelyn, you are vastly underestimating how quickly I can destroy your life."
Five minutes later, Julian placed Maya gently on the plush king-sized bed in his private master suite—a room Evelyn had explicitly forbidden Maya from entering for ninety days.
He called the family’s private physician, Dr. Harrison, demanding an emergency house call, and ordered the head housekeeper, Mrs. Gable—who had been forced into silence by Evelyn’s threats—to bring up warm blankets, tea, and antiseptic cream.
Maya lay on the bed, wrapped in a cashmere blanket, clutching a mug of warm tea with her raw fingers. The color was slowly returning to her face, but her eyes were still wide with residual terror.
"Maya," Julian sat beside her on the edge of the mattress, taking her hand gently. "Tell me everything. From the day I boarded that plane to London."
Maya swallowed hard, looking down at the steam rising from her mug. "Two days after you left... stepmother took my phone and my laptop. She said... she said you authorized her to manage my life because you were tired of supporting me."
Julian’s breath hitched. "I sent you twenty thousand dollars every month! I called your phone every single night!"
"She blocked your number on my phone," Maya whispered, a tear trailing down her cheek. "And she changed the security codes on my bank accounts. She told me... she said you realized I wasn't your real daughter... that you found out my mother cheated on you, and that you were cutting me off completely."
Julian felt like he had been kicked in the chest by a wild horse. A dark, terrifying crimson haze filled his vision.
"She brought her son, Julian," Maya continued, her voice trembling. "She moved her twenty-two-year-old son, Carter, into my bedroom in the East Wing. They threw all my mother's old clothes and paintings into the incinerator in the backyard..."
May you like
Julian’s jaw clenched so hard his teeth groaned under the pressure. "What else?"
"They told the servants that I was no longer a member of the family," Maya sobbed, burying her face in her hands. "They made me sleep in the unheated storage room in the basement. They took my shoes, my coat, and my ID. They told me if I tried to run away or call the police, Carter would tell the university that I stole thousands of dollars from the family trust... and that you would leave me to rot in prison."
