Chapter 6 - The Paper Trail
The police arrived, dragging Isabella and Thomas out of the estate in handcuffs. The media had already caught wind of the commotion, and helicopters were circling the property. The headline was already writing itself: Billionaire's Dead Wife Found Alive, Enslaved in Own Home.
But Julian couldn't rest. Thomas’s cryptic warning echoed in his mind. Isabella wasn't a mastermind; she was a socialite. She didn't have the technical skills to bypass the estate's security matrix or forge Clara’s signature flawlessly enough to transfer her assets.
Julian called his chief financial officer and demanded a full, aggressive audit of the Sterling Empire over the last forty-eight months.
Hours later, as the sun began to set, the CFO called back, his voice trembling. "Julian... it's bad. Isabella wasn't just living as Clara to enjoy the lifestyle. She’s been systematically draining the offshore accounts."
"How much?" Julian asked, staring out the window at the flashing police lights below.
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"Over three hundred million dollars," the CFO choked out. "She used Clara’s forged biometric data to bypass the security. She’s been funneling the money into a shell corporation called Vanguard Holdings. Julian... Isabella was preparing to buy out your board of directors. She was trying to steal your entire company from the inside."
The reality set in. Keeping Clara alive wasn't a sick game of torture. It was a business requirement. Isabella needed Clara alive to continuously harvest fresh biometric data—fingerprints, voice recordings, and retina scans—to steal the Sterling fortune.
