Chapter 3 - THE WEB OF LIES
The days following the gala were a blur of police depositions, medical evaluations, and sleepless nights. Julianne had moved Leo out of the Vance estate immediately, taking him to a secluded, high-security penthouse downtown, purchased under her maiden name. She refused to let Arthur join them.
Leo was recovering physically, but the psychological scars ran deep. He flinched at sudden noises, refused to sleep with the lights off, and clung to Julianne as if she might vanish if he let go. But amidst the trauma, there were beautiful moments. Leo remembered his mother's lullaby. He remembered the smell of her lavender perfume. Slowly, the bond that had been brutally severed five years ago was knit back together.
But Julianne knew she couldn't let her guard down. Victoria’s high-priced legal team was already moving mountains. They had filed for bail, claiming Victoria's failing health made incarceration inhumane. Worse, they were preparing a defense that accused Julianne of staging the entire kidnapping to secure sole custody and the trust fund.
One evening, while Leo was asleep, Julianne received an encrypted email from an unknown sender. The subject line read: SWITZERLAND, 2023.
Inside was a single video file and a scanned bank document. Julianne’s breath hitched as she opened the video. It was security footage from a private Swiss bank, dated October 14th, 2023—three years after Leo’s alleged death.
The video showed Arthur Vance entering a secure vault. He was accompanied by a woman whose face was partially hidden by a wide-brimmed hat. They opened a safety deposit box, took out a stack of documents, and shared a brief, familiar hug.
Julianne zoomed in on the woman's face when she turned toward the camera.
Her heart shattered into a million pieces. It wasn't Victoria. It was Beatrice Sterling—Julianne's own sister, who had supposedly moved to Paris to pursue her art career shortly after Leo's disappearance.
Julianne pulled up the bank document. It was a wire transfer of five million dollars from the Vance offshore account to a shell company registered in Beatrice’s name. The date of the transfer was the exact day Leo's search party was officially called off five years ago.
"No..." Julianne whispered, tears of betrayal burning her eyes. "Not Beatrice. Not my own sister."
The phone in her hand began to ring. It was Arthur. She answered it, her voice cold as ice.
"Julianne, please, you have to let me see Leo. You have to let me explain," Arthur pleaded.
"Where is Beatrice, Arthur?" Julianne asked, her voice dangerously quiet.
There was a sudden, sharp intake of breath on the other end of the line. "Julianne... how do you..."
"I have the Swiss bank footage, Arthur. I have the wire transfers," Julianne said, her heart hardening. "You and my sister. You took my son. You helped Victoria, didn't you? You traded my baby's life for five million dollars and a share of the Vance empire!"
"No! Julianne, listen to me!" Arthur panicked, his voice cracking. "It's not what it looks like! I didn't know Leo was alive back then! Beatrice blackmailing me! She found out about a secret account my mother was using to fund political campaigns. She threatened to destroy the family if I didn't pay her. I went to Switzerland to pay her off to protect us! I swear, I didn't know she was working with my mother!"
"I don't believe a single word coming out of your mouth," Julianne said. "I am going to the district attorney tomorrow morning. I am turning over this footage, and I will make sure both you, your mother, and my sister spend the rest of your lives in a cell."
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"Julianne, wait! Beatrice isn't in Paris. She's here, in the city. She’s working with my mother's lawyers! They are going to use her to testify that you were the one who hired someone to hide Leo to extort the family. If they present that in court, the judge might suspend your custody pending investigation. They will take Leo away from you again!"
Julianne’s blood ran cold. The snake wasn't just in the grass; it was coiled around her throat. If she didn't act fast, Victoria’s web of lies would suffocate her, and she would lose Leo all over again.
