Chapter 4 - The Art of the Betrayal
The next forty-eight hours were a blur of adrenaline and fear.
Liam and I worked in absolute secrecy, knowing that every move we made was being watched by Julian Ward, the snake in our boardroom. We couldn't go to the police yet—not with the threat of the fabricated documents hanging over our heads. We had to prove the documents were fakes, and we had to find where Charles was keeping the master server that held them.
"If I know my father," I told Liam as we analyzed Charles's financial patterns, "he wouldn't trust a cloud server. He's paranoid. He would keep the physical hard drive close to him. Probably at his estate in the hills."
"Then we have to get into that estate," Liam said, his jaw tightening. "But how? It's heavily guarded, and he'll be expecting us."
"He'll be expecting us," I corrected him. "But he won't be expecting a betrayal from his own partner."
I turned to the surveillance feed we had secretly installed in Julian Ward’s office. On the screen, the CFO was pacing nervously, sweating through his expensive suit. He was clearly unraveling.
"Julian is a coward," I pointed out. "He joined my father for the money, not the suicide mission. If we show him that Charles is planning to frame him as the fall guy for the entire money-laundering scheme, Julian will turn on him in a heartbeat."
We didn't waste any time. Liam summoned Julian to the executive boardroom under the guise of an emergency budget meeting.
When Julian walked in, the doors locked behind him. I sat at the end of the long mahogany table, playing a video file on the main projector. It was a recorded phone call we had intercepted between Charles and an offshore broker, discussing how to route the stolen $150 million to a private account in Switzerland—an account registered solely in Julian Ward’s name, without his knowledge.
"Your partner is setting you up, Julian," Liam said, his voice cold and commanding. "When the feds come down, Charles will be on a beach in a non-extradition country, and you will be facing thirty years in a federal penitentiary for grand larceny and treason."
Julian's face went completely bloodless. He sank into a chair, clutching his chest. "No... no, Charles promised me we were partners! He said he had my back!"
"Charles Sterling has nobody's back but his own," I said, leaning forward. "He destroyed his own family. You think he cares about you? Help us get the physical hard drive from his estate, and we will ensure the prosecutors grant you full immunity."
Julian looked between Liam and me, his hands shaking violently. The fear of prison finally broke his loyalty.
"Okay," Julian whispered, wiping the sweat from his forehead. "Okay, I'll help you. He keeps the master server in the basement wine cellar of his estate. It's protected by a biometric lock... but I have his backup keycard."
He reached into his pocket and slid a gold-plated keycard across the table.
"But you have to be careful," Julian warned, his voice trembling. "Charles has hired private security. And... he's armed. He’s completely unhinged, Chloe. He talks about your mother and Uncle Arthur every single day. He’s obsessed."
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I took the keycard, its metallic edges cold against my skin.
"Let him be obsessed," I said. "It's time to end this."
