Chapter 6 - The Shadow Partner Emerges
Three weeks had passed since the catastrophic wedding day that nearly destroyed my life. The legal fallout was swift and merciless. Both Amanda and Marcus were remanded without bail, facing a laundry list of federal charges that guaranteed decades behind bars. Their elaborate scheme had unraveled completely under the scrutiny of federal investigators.
Sophie and I had temporarily relocated to a quiet, secluded coastal estate three hours away from the memories of St.arlight Estate. The ocean breeze brought a sense of peace we hadn't felt in years. Sophie was laughing again, building sandcastles on the private beach and sleeping soundly through the night without nightmares.
I sat on the veranda overlooking the crashing waves, reviewing corporate restructuring documents on my tablet. Just as I was about to close my laptop, an encrypted email notification popped up in my secure inbox.
The sender address was hidden behind a proxy server, but the subject line made my blood run cold:“Amanda didn't tell you everything about the trust fund. Look at the attachment.”
My instincts screamed that this could be another trap, but curiosity and caution forced me to click. Inside was a scanned document—a birth certificate and legal adoption dossier dating back five years.
It wasn't just Marcus and Amanda. There was a third name involved in the corporate setup: Victor Vance, my estranged younger half-brother who had been disowned by our father a decade ago for embezzling family funds.
Victor hadn't just been watching from the shadows; he was the mastermind who had introduced Amanda to Marcus in the first place, orchestrating the entire long-con to strip me of my inheritance out of pure, bitter jealousy.
Before I could pick up my phone to call Detective Miller, my phone rang. The caller ID displayed an unknown local number.
May you like
I pressed accept. “Hello?”
“Ethan, dear brother,” Victor’s smooth, mocking voice purred through the speaker. “I trust you’re enjoying the ocean view? Because it’s the last view you’re going to have before everything you own legally transfers to my name.”
