Chapter 7
The brass handle of the master suite door rotated with a slow, agonizing creak. Clara squeezed her eyes shut, pressing her forehead against the cool mirrored surface of the shoe rack, her arms tightening around the sleeping toddler like a protective shell.
"You're pointing a gun at your own blood?" Marcus’s voice mocked from just outside the doorway, dripping with arrogant amusement. "Put the piece down, Julian. We both know you don't have the stomach to pull the trigger. You're an artist, not a killer."
"Step one more foot into this room, Marcus, and you'll find out exactly what I'm willing to do for my daughter," Julian replied, his voice terrifyingly steady. The metallic scrape of shoe leather against hardwood suggested Julian was standing right in the threshold, blocking the entrance to the suite.
"It’s not about Lily," Marcus spat, his tone hardening into something venomous. "It’s about the drive. The encrypted drive Elena smuggled out of the office before her car went off the bridge. She gave it to someone. She gave it to that little nobody you hired from the agency."
"She didn't give it to anyone," Julian lied smoothly, a masterclass in deception born of desperation. "The drive was destroyed in the crash, Marcus. It’s gone. You killed her for nothing."
A heavy silence fell over the hallway. Clara held her breath, praying that Lily wouldn't stir. Every muscle in Clara's body was locked in agonizing tension.
"You're lying," Marcus whispered, his footsteps shifting closer to the bed. "If it was destroyed, why have you spent the last fourteen months secretly funding an off-the-books forensic audit through a shell corporation in Zurich? I know about the Swiss accounts, Julian. I know you never stopped looking for the truth."
Julian didn't answer immediately. The sound of shifting fabric suggested he had adjusted his stance, maintaining his tactical advantage in the doorway.
"The audit is finished, Marcus," Julian said softly. "And the package has already been delivered to the federal prosecutor's office with a time-release digital signature that unlocks the moment my heart stops beating."
Marcus let out a sharp, breathless laugh that sounded entirely unhinged. "A dead-man's switch? You really are as paranoid as Elena was."
"Call it insurance," Julian replied coldly. "Now get out of my home before I stop treating you like family."
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Footsteps retreated backward across the hardwood, slow and hesitant. The heavy exterior door of the penthouse slammed shut a moment later, shaking the walls of the luxury suite.
Clara let out a ragged, silent sob, sliding down to the floor of the closet as the adrenaline finally crashed, leaving her utterly hollow.
