Chapter 2 - The Glass Cage
Miles away from the sterile safety of Clara’s hospital suite, Julian Sterling was pacing like a caged animal.
He was not in a police station, nor was he in a county jail cell.
He and Elise had been thrown into a windowless, concrete reinforced bunker deep beneath one of Victoria’s private estates.
The heavy steel door was locked from the outside, and the only light came from a harsh, unblinking fluorescent bulb bolted behind a metal grate.
“We have to call my lawyer!” Julian shouted at the security camera mounted in the corner of the ceiling.
Elise was curled into a ball on the cold floor, still shivering in her ruined velvet robe, her face smeared with dried mascara and dirt.
“Your lawyer?” Elise shrieked hysterically, her voice echoing off the concrete walls.
“Julian, that was Victoria Sterling! She’s alive! Do you understand what that means?”
Julian spun around, pointing an accusatory finger at the woman he had been sleeping with for months.
“Keep your mouth shut, Elise, or so help me God, I will blame this entire assassination attempt on you.”
Elise scrambled backward, pressing her back against the freezing wall as she stared at him in pure horror.
“You told me she was helpless! You told me it would be easy!” she sobbed uncontrollably.
“It was easy, until you started panicking and left a trail of digital footprints a mile wide,” Julian snarled, his carefully crafted handsome features now twisted into an ugly sneer.
He lunged forward, grabbing Elise by the shoulders and shaking her violently.
“When the police finally get here, you are going to tell them that Clara tried to commit suicide.”
Before Elise could respond, a sudden, piercing crackle of static erupted from the speaker above the camera.
Victoria’s calm, aristocratic voice filled the small, miserable room.
“There will be no police, Julian,” she announced, her tone dripping with lethal amusement.
Julian released Elise and backed away, his eyes wide with a sudden, primal fear.
“You are currently residing in an off-the-books facility, and the outside world believes you have fled the country.”
“You can’t do this! I am the CEO of Sterling Innovations!” Julian screamed at the camera.
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“Not anymore,” Victoria replied softly.
“By the time the sun rises, you won't even own the clothes on your back.”
