Chapter 9 - A Serpent's Strike
Victoria stepped into the room, her voice dripping with venomous amusement.
"You told me the mother died of an overdose in New Orleans, Julian."
"You told me the boy was clean of legal entanglements."
Julian dropped Clara, whirling around to face his fiancée with a snarl.
"Get out of here, Victoria."
"This is family business."
"Family business?" Victoria laughed, a cold, sharp sound that echoed off the mahogany bookshelves.
"My family’s name and hospital licenses are tied to your dirty little secret."
"If my uncle goes down for forging medical certs, the Sterling pharmaceutical merger collapses."
She walked deliberately toward Clara, her eyes raking over the maid’s worn features.
"You think you’re taking this boy away?"
"You think you’re going to walk into probate court and claim his trust fund?"
"I don't care about the money," Clara spat, her eyes flashing with pure maternal hatred.
"I want my son away from you monsters."
"How touching," Victoria whispered, her hand moving with lightning speed from behind her back.
A small silver syringe glinted in the study light.
Before Julian could react, Victoria lunged forward, driving the needle toward Clara’s neck.
Clara twisted violently, catching Victoria’s wrist and slamming it against the edge of the mahogany desk.
The glass syringe shattered on the wood, spilling clear, fatal tranquilizer across Julian’s legal ledgers.
Victoria shrieked, clutching her bruised wrist, her aristocratic mask completely disintegrated into animal rage.
"Shoot her, Julian!" she screamed.
"Shoot her and say she broke into the safe to rob us!"
Julian stood frozen, the gun trembling in his hand.
For all his corporate cruelty, he was a creature of calculated risk, not a butcher.
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Pulling the trigger inside his own mansion on the eve of the largest financial merger of his career was suicide.
Taking advantage of his hesitation, Clara snatched the original birth certificate from the desk, kicked the heavy desk chair into Julian’s path, and sprinted through the library’s side exit.
