Chapter 3 - The Butler's Shadow
By dawn, the winter snow had begun to fall over Chicago, dusting the iron gates of the DeLuca estate in white.
Julian stood in his private study on the third floor, staring at a wall covered in documents, police reports from four years ago, and financial ledgers. Sitting on his desk was the small iron box Vance’s men had taken from Nora’s room.
Inside was a handwritten letter on yellowed notebook paper, dated four years ago.
Julian, If you are reading this, it means I am gone and Nora was forced to break her promise. Please do not be angry with her. She only wanted to protect our baby. I didn't leave because I stopped loving you. I left because the man who raised you told me that my presence would get you killed. He showed me the poison he kept in his ring. He told me that if I didn't get on the bus to Indiana, you would never live to see your thirty-fifth birthday. Forgive me. Love our daughter. Claire.
Julian lowered the letter. His eyes burned with a cold, terrifying fire.
The man who raised him. Not his biological father, who was bedridden during those final years—but Thomas Bell. Thomas, who had managed the estate, managed the security detail, and had access to every drink, meal, and medicine that entered the DeLuca household.
The door to the study opened, and Vance stepped inside, soaked in melting snow.
"We found him, Boss," Vance said quietly. "He didn't leave the city. He went to the old family mausoleum at Graceland Cemetery."
Ten minutes later, three black SUVs tore through the quiet, snow-covered avenues of Graceland Cemetery, stopping before the grand granite structure bearing the name DeLuca.
Julian stepped out into the freezing wind, pulling a dark overcoat over his shoulders. He walked down the stone steps into the subterranean vault, his boots echoing against the marble floor.
Sitting on a marble bench near the iron sarcophagus of Julian’s father was Thomas Bell. He was holding a small silver flask, staring aimlessly at the stone wall. He didn't look up when Julian entered, flanked by six armed enforcers.
"I wondered how long it would take you, Julian," Thomas said, his voice raspy and frail.
"Why, Thomas?" Julian asked, stopping three feet away. "Thirty-two years. You were like a second father to me."
Thomas let out a dry, bitter laugh. "A second father? No, Julian. I was a servant. For thirty-two years, I cleaned up the blood your father spilled. I built this empire while your family took the credit. And four years ago, when your father was dying, I saw you about to hand half of the family’s assets to an orphan girl with no name and no connections."
"Claire was carrying my child!" Julian roared, his composure shattering.
"She was a weakness!" Thomas snapped, standing up, his eyes wide with a frantic, unhinged devotion. "You were meant to lead the Commission! You were meant to marry a woman of status—like Cassandra Vale! A woman whose family controls the banks and the courts! Claire Arden would have dragged you down into the mud!"
"So you threatened her? You forced her into the snow to die?"
"I gave her a choice to live!" Thomas spat. "And last night... last night I saw that little girl dance. I saw Claire's face in her. I realized that the maid in your kitchen was Claire's foster sister, and that the child was your heir. I realized my thirty years of work were about to be undone by a four-year-old child."
Julian’s voice dropped to a razor-thin whisper. "The champagne glass."
"It was meant for you, Julian," Thomas confessed without a shred of remorse. "If you died last night, the estate would have passed to Cassandra as your fiancée under the new will I drafted last month. I would have controlled the trust. But Cassandra took your glass."
Julian turned his back on Thomas. He couldn't bear to look at the man any longer.
"Vance," Julian said softly.
May you like
"Yes, Boss?"
"Call the federal prosecutors. Hand over every ledger Thomas kept for the last thirty years. Let him spend the rest of his life in a maximum-security cell, watching my daughter inherit everything he tried to destroy."
