Chapter 3 - THE SNAKE IN THE GRASS
Z
The silence that settled over the Vance estate after my declaration was deafening. Eleanor looked down at the court-stamped documents trembling in her hands, her face completely drained of color. Victoria grabbed the papers from her mother's hands, her eyes scanning the legal seals and signatures in absolute horror.
"This... this is impossible," Victoria stammered, her voice cracking. "Arthur Sterling died twenty years ago! You’re making this up!"
"Arthur Sterling is very much alive, Victoria," I replied smoothly, folding my arms across my chest. "And he knows exactly how you and your brother spent the last four years attempting to siphon his legacy through me."
Before either of them could utter another word, the sharp gravel crunched behind us as a silver Porsche pulled aggressively into the driveway. The driver’s side door slammed open, and Chloe step out, wearing a bright crimson designer blazer and oversized sunglasses.
She froze mid-step when her eyes met mine. For a fraction of a second, absolute terror flashed across her face, but she quickly masked it with her signature snake-like charm.
"Genevieve?" Chloe gasped, putting a hand over her heart as if she were deeply relieved to see me. She hurried toward me, her heels clicking loudly against the cobblestones. "Oh my god, sweetie! Julian called me last night and said you were having a severe mental breakdown at the hospital! I was so worried about you! What are you doing out of bed?"
I looked at her—the woman I had shared a dorm room with for three years, the woman who held my hair back when I was sick in college, the woman I considered my sister. Seeing her act so flawlessly made my skin crawl.
"I’m feeling much better, Chloe," I said, my voice dripping with cold sarcasm. "In fact, my mind has never been clearer."
Julian’s black sedan roared up the driveway next, locking his brakes so hard that black rubber streaks were left on the pristine concrete. He lunged out of the car, his tie unbuttoned, his hair disheveled. He looked frantically between Eleanor, Chloe, and me.
"Genevieve!" Julian yelled, marching toward me with his hand outstretched. "What the hell is going on here? Why are you out of the hospital? Mom, why are you crying?"
"She brought legal papers, Julian!" Victoria screamed, waving the folder in the air. "She’s trying to steal the estate! She says Arthur Sterling is her father and he owns our mortgage!"
Julian stopped dead in his tracks. His eyes darted nervously toward Chloe, who imperceptibly shook her head, trying to signal him to stay quiet. But it was too late; his reaction had already betrayed him.
"You... you knew?" Julian stammered, his eyes widening as he looked at me.
"I know everything, Julian," I said softly, stepping closer to him. "I know about the illegal sedatives your mother spiked my tea with. I know about the fraudulent power-of-attorney forms you tried to force my thumbprint onto while I was feverish. And I know about Aura Design."
Chloe’s breath hitched. She instinctively stepped back toward her car.
"Aura Design?" Eleanor frowned, looking at Chloe. "What does her little company have to do with anything?"
"Tell her, Chloe," I said, turning my gaze directly onto my former best friend. "Tell my mother-in-law how you and Julian have been quietly funneling millions of dollars out of my firm for the past twelve months. Tell her how you two planned to lock me away in a psych ward so you could split the profits."
"That’s a lie!" Chloe shrieked, her voice dropping its fake warmth and turning razor-sharp. "Genevieve, you are completely out of your mind! You’re paranoid! You’re having a psychotic break just like the doctors said!"
"Are the bank records paranoid, Chloe?"
I reached into my blazer pocket and pulled out a tablet, tapping the screen to display a series of high-resolution wire transfer receipts. I stepped toward Eleanor and held the screen in front of her face.
"Look closely, Eleanor," I said calmly. "While you were demanding that I cook for forty people with a 104-degree fever, your beloved son was transferring two hundred thousand dollars from our shared business account directly into Chloe Hayes’ personal offshore holding account in the Cayman Islands. He didn't use that money to pay off your estate's mortgage. He bought Chloe a condo in downtown Philadelphia."
Eleanor stared at the screen, her mouth agape. She whipped her head around to face Julian, her eyes wild with fury. "Julian! Is this true?! You took family money and gave it to her instead of saving our home?!"
"Mom, wait! It’s not what it looks like!" Julian panicked, his face sweating profusely. "Genevieve is manipulating the numbers! Chloe and I were setting up an investment trust—"
"An investment trust?" I laughed bitterly. "Is that what you call sleeping together at the Ritz-Carlton every Tuesday night while telling me you were out meeting prospective clients?"
The entire courtyard erupted into chaos. Eleanor lunged toward Chloe, screaming obscenities and trying to grab her hair. Victoria rushed to pull her mother back, while Julian threw his arms around his mother to restrain her, shouting frantically for everyone to calm down.
Amidst the screaming, the tearing of clothes, and the frantic curses, I stood perfectly still in the center of the storm.
I leaned down to pick up my sunglasses from the ground, slipped them on, and looked at Julian one last time.
"My father's legal team has already filed a civil suit for corporate fraud, grand larceny, and spousal abuse," I said calmly over the sound of Eleanor’s hysterical weeping. "And the police will be arriving at your office within the hour with a search warrant."
I turned my back on the spiraling Vance family and walked toward my SUV.
"Genevieve, wait!" Julian broke free from his mother and ran after me, grabbing my wrist firmly. "You can't do this to me! I'm your husband! We can talk about this! We can work this out!"
I looked down at his hand gripping my wrist, then looked up into his desperate, pathetic eyes.
"Take your hands off me, Julian," I whispered, my voice dripping with pure ice. "Or the security guard behind me will break your jaw before you can even apologize."
Julian looked over my shoulder and saw the six-foot-four security officer stepping out of the SUV, his hand resting near his jacket holster. Julian instantly let go of my wrist, taking a horrified step backward.
"You're going to regret this, Genevieve!" Julian yelled as I stepped into the vehicle. "You have nothing without my family name!"
As the SUV door slammed shut, sliding away from the chaotic scene, my phone chimed. It was a text message from an unknown number.
I opened the message. It contained a single, high-definition photograph.
May you like
It was a picture of a safety deposit box receipt signed under my name, dated three years ago—a document I had never seen in my life. Attached was a short text message:
“You think you know the whole truth, Genevieve? Ask your father what really happened to your biological mother twenty years ago. The Vances aren't the only ones who lied to you.”
