Chapter 16 - The Digital Trail
By the time they returned to the estate, the sun had set, plunging the grounds into shadows. The atmosphere inside the study was electric with tension. Frank had summoned his two best digital forensic analysts, who had stripped down the estate's main router and local network infrastructure.
Clara sat at the round conference table beside Julian, carefully cataloging the diary entries alongside the financial ledgers. Every piece of the puzzle was clicking into place with terrifying precision.
"Marcus Kane has been shorting Vance Holdings stock through Albatross Advisory for three solid years," Clara pointed out, tracing the transfer dates with a pen. "Every time there was a domestic crisis in this house—every time Leo had an 'episode' that forced Julian to cancel an overseas investor summit—Marcus executed a major sell-off."
Julian stood behind his analysts, watching lines of recovered server code scroll down three massive monitors.
"What do you have, Frank?" Julian demanded.
"We cracked the secondary encryption on Mrs. Gable’s deleted server partition," Frank said, pointing to a restored folder labeled *GUEST_LOGS*. "Look at the automated motion capture from the private study entrance on the nights you were out of the country, Julian."
The screen flickered. A high-resolution time-stamped video began playing.
The timestamp showed March 14th of last year, at 2:15 AM. Julian had been in Zurich closing a renewable energy consortium deal.
On the screen, Mrs. Gable appeared in the hallway, using an electronic master key to unlock Julian’s private study door. But she didn't enter alone.
Walking behind her was Marcus Kane, carrying a sleek black briefcase.
"They were accessing my corporate terminal," Julian said, his voice dropping to a dangerous whisper. "They were copying merger proposals, patent filings, proprietary valuation models..."
"It’s worse than that, Mr. Vance," the technician said, typing rapidly. "Look at the audio feed captured by the nursery baby monitor that night."
The audio played through the study speakers. Leo’s distant crying could be heard from the nursery down the hall. Then, Evelyn Gable’s harsh voice: *'Hurry up, Marcus. The kid is waking up.'*
And then, Marcus Kane’s cold, unmistakable voice replied: *'Give him another dose of the syrup. If Julian comes home early and finds the boy alert, he might actually start acting like a father. We need Julian broken, distracted, and grieving until the proxy vote clears.'*
Clara buried her face in her hands for a second, sick to her stomach. Julian slammed his fist onto the mahogany table with such force that the crystal water carafe shattered, water spilling across the polished wood.
"They drugged my son to steal my company," Julian roared, his chest heaving. "They tortured a five-year-old child to line their pockets!"
"Julian," Clara said, standing up and ignoring the broken glass. She stepped directly in front of him, her voice commanding his attention. "You cannot lose your temper tomorrow. That is exactly what Marcus and your sister are counting on. They want you to storm into that boardroom screaming and looking unhinged so they can invoke the emergency succession clause."
Julian looked into Clara’s fierce, unwavering eyes. Her composure was the anchor keeping him from drowning in his own rage.
"She’s right, boss," Frank said quietly. "If you go in there with raw anger, their legal team will bury it under procedural motions. You need to hit them with undeniable proof before Marcus even realizes we have the hard drive."
Julian took a long, ragged breath. He looked down at the documents, then at Clara.
May you like
"Call our general counsel," Julian said, his eyes turning to cold steel. "Tell them to draft an emergency indictment. Tomorrow morning, we don't just attend a board meeting. We shut them down permanently."
***
