Chapter 9 - Vanessa’s Greed
While Victoria and Marcus were being escorted out of the Sterling Enterprises tower by armed corporate security amidst a sea of whispering employees and flashing smartphone cameras, another drama was unfolding in the underground parking garage.
Julian was walking toward his armored SUV, surrounded by his security detail, when a shadow detached itself from behind a concrete pillar.
“Julian! Wait! Please, just give me sixty seconds!”
It was Vanessa, Marcus’s wife. Her hair was disheveled, her designer mascara was smudged beneath her eyes, and she was clutching a Prada handbag to her chest like a shield. She looked terrified, constantly glancing over her shoulder toward the private elevators where her husband and mother-in-law were being detained.
David immediately stepped between Vanessa and Julian, his hand resting on his sidearm. “Step back, Mrs. Sterling.”
“Let her speak, David,” Julian said coldly, stopping by the door of his SUV. “What do you want, Vanessa? Come to defend your husband’s part in kidnapping my children?”
“I didn't know about the murder, Julian! I swear to God I didn't!” Vanessa pleaded, tears streaming down her face as she stepped closer, keeping out of David’s reach. “Marcus and Victoria—they keep me in the dark about everything! They just told me that Clara had hidden two illegitimate kids to extort the estate! I didn't know your mother poisoned her!”
“You cracked open my daughter’s bread roll looking for an extortion scam, Vanessa,” Julian reminded her, his voice dripping with disgust. “You are just as complicit in their cruelty as they are.”
“I can help you!” Vanessa blurted out, her voice cracking with desperation. “Julian, look at me. Marcus is drowning in fifteen million dollars of private gambling debt to a syndicate in Macau. That’s why he’s helping your mother! If you had heirs, the family trust fund would automatically lock Marcus out of his monthly distributions until the girls turn twenty-one. He needed those kids gone to pay off his bookies before they break his legs!”
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Julian’s eyes narrowed. “Where is Nanny Sarah, Vanessa? If you want to walk away from this without a federal indictment for conspiracy to commit murder, tell me where they took her right now.”
Vanessa swallowed hard, her eyes darting between Julian’s cold face and David’s tactical vest. “They didn't take her to the Reno warehouse, Julian. That was a decoy to draw your security team away from the city. She’s here. They’ve been holding her in the soundproof basement of Victoria’s private art gallery in the Mission District since yesterday morning.”
