Chapter 5
The figure standing in the doorway was not David, nor was it Ethan. It was Marcus, holding a bloodstained manila folder in his left hand, his face pale and drained of all color. The guards flanking him instantly raised their weapons, not toward the intruder, but toward Julian and Elena, their black-suited bodies pivoting in a coordinated betrayal that caught Julian completely off guard.
Julian’s hand dropped instinctively to his side, his fingers curling into a fist as he assessed the sudden shift in tactical advantage. "What is the meaning of this, Marcus?" Julian asked, his voice dangerously calm, belying the coiled spring of violence ready to snap inside him.
Marcus didn't answer immediately. He walked slowly across the ruined cake, his polished shoes crunching on the pink frosting and rose petals, leaving a trail of sticky destruction in his wake. He stopped three paces away from Julian, holding out the manila folder like an offering to a king.
"The security logs weren't hacked, Mr. Vance," Marcus said, his tone entirely devoid of its usual subservient respect. "They were rewritten. By me. On your brother's direct orders... three weeks before he died in Zurich."
Elena gasped, clutching her chest as the room seemed to spin violently around her. "Died? David is dead?"
"Car accident," Marcus replied flatly, his eyes fixed on Julian. "At least, that's what the Swiss authorities reported. But before he died, your brother left a very specific package behind. A contingency plan. In case you ever figured out the truth about what happened five years ago on the night Maya was born."
Julian snatched the manila folder from Marcus's hand, ripping it open with brutal efficiency. Inside lay a single photograph and a handwritten letter bearing David's unmistakable scrawl. The photograph showed a hospital delivery room, with a timestamp from five years ago. In the background, standing in the shadows of the doorway, was a figure holding a silver scalpel.
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It wasn't Ethan in the photo. And it wasn't David.
It was Julian himself, wearing a blood-soaked lab coat, staring down at a second newborn infant that Elena had never been told existed.
