Chapter 10 - The Cliffside Estate
The town car tore away from the hospital curb, tires screaming against the wet asphalt as Frank navigated the winding coastal highway leading toward the Vance family estate. The rain was coming down harder now, slashing diagonally across the windshield in sheets that made the headlights look like blurred halos in the dark.
"Talk to me, Frank," Julian said, gripping the leather armrest as the car took a sharp curve at eighty miles per hour. "How long has Marcus been working with Richard?"
Frank kept his eyes locked on the road, his knuckles white against the steering wheel. "Since before the yacht accident four years ago, Mr. Vance. Richard never actually died. That whole Mediterranean explosion was staged with a dead body pulled from a maritime morgue to collect thirty million in life insurance fraud. Marcus helped him set up the offshore accounts while Richard went into deep hiding in South America."
Julian felt a cold sweat break out across his neck despite the heater blasting in the car. "And Clara? Was she part of it from the beginning?"
"Clara was just a pawn they recruited six months ago to get close to you," Frank explained, glancing in the rearview mirror to check for tailing vehicles. "They needed an insider inside your household to monitor your schedule, copy your security credentials, and plant those fake financial statements in your safe deposit box. The sofa pillow stunt at the gala... that wasn't part of Richard's plan. Clara went rogue trying to secure a bigger individual payout behind their backs."
Julian stared out the rain-streaked window into the pitch-black abyss of the ocean crashing against the jagged cliffs below. "Greed always destroys amateurs. But why attack the estate tonight?"
"Because of the grandfather's original trust charter," Frank said grimly. "Richard found out about the floor safe in your uncle's study two hours ago. If he gets his hands on that document before sunrise, he legally voids your uncle's emergency medical directives, seizes the entire Vance estate, and leaves you with nothing."
As Frank spoke, the towering iron gates of the Vance ancestral estate loomed out of the darkness ahead, standing wide open. The security lodge at the entrance was completely dark, its windows shattered inward.
Frank slammed on the brakes, sending the car sliding into a controlled spin onto the gravel driveway. Through the pouring rain, they could see three black utility vehicles parked haphazardly across the front lawn, their hazard lights blinking a rhythmic amber warning against the ancient stone facade of the mansion.
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"They're already inside," Julian said, his voice dropping to a low, lethal whisper as he reached for the door handle. "And they're looking for the safe."
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