Chapter 16 - Shadows in the Background
Inside a dimly lit corner booth of an upscale downtown steakhouse three blocks away from the federal courthouse, a man in a rumpled linen suit watched the live broadcast of Grace’s press conference on a glowing smartphone screen.
It was Julian Vance, Beatrice’s estranged cousin and a disgraced former hedge fund manager who had spent the last decade dabbling in corporate espionage and high-stakes blackmail. His eyes narrowed as he watched Grace step into the sleek black SUV alongside Declan Pierce.
"Well, well, well," Julian muttered to himself, taking a slow sip of bourbon. "The little runaway housewife turned out to be a ruthless black widow. Who would have thought?"
His phone buzzed on the dark wood table. An incoming text message flashed across the screen from an anonymous encrypted number: The package is secured. Ethan’s personal ledger is still unaccounted for. Find it before Pierce locks down the estate.
Julian smiled—a thin, predatory grin that didn't reach his eyes. He had spent months digging into Ethan Calloway’s shady overseas accounts, knowing full well that Ethan was too arrogant to keep all his illicit gains in traditional banking institutions. Somewhere in Ethan’s sprawling country estate outside Chapel Hill, hidden behind layers of encrypted files and old-school safe deposit boxes, lay a backup drive containing enough offshore transaction logs to implicate half the political elite in North Carolina—including several high-ranking partners currently cozying up to Pierce Global.
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If Julian could get his hands on that ledger before the federal marshals seized the estate, he wouldn't just have leverage over Ethan; he would have a golden key to blackmail the entire new leadership of Aegis Global.
He tossed a hundred-dollar bill onto the table, stood up, grabbed his coat, and slipped out into the gathering twilight. The game wasn't over yet; it was simply entering a much darker, more dangerous phase.
