Chapter 3 - The Fiancée and the Missing Millions
Sophie tried to end the call.
Julian took the phone from her hand.
He answered.
“Marcus.”
Silence came from the other end.
Then Marcus spoke carefully.
“Why do you have Sophie’s phone?”
Julian looked at Clara.
“She’s standing in my mother’s garden.”
Another silence.
Longer this time.
Julian’s voice hardened.
“What business do you have with my fiancée’s sister?”
Marcus ended the call.
Clara moved toward Julian.
“Please let me explain.”
“Start.”
She looked at Evelyn.
“Not in front of them.”
“My mother was humiliated in front of your sister.”
“You can explain in front of everyone.”
Clara folded her arms.
The soft, frightened woman disappeared.
“Marcus has been helping me plan the wedding.”
“With what authority?”
“You were always busy.”
“Planning a wedding does not require access to my company accounts.”
Julian’s eyes narrowed.
Clara’s face changed.
That was the question she had not expected.
Evelyn asked Julian to open his corporate banking application.
Three transfers had been made during the previous forty-eight hours.
Each transfer went to a holding company called Northbridge Lifestyle Partners.
The total was four million dollars.
Julian stared at the screen.
“I did not approve these.”
Clara looked away.
Marcus’s authorization code appeared beside every transaction.
A second approval belonged to Julian.
The signature was electronic.
He had been on a plane when two of the transfers were made.
“They copied your credentials,” Evelyn said.
Julian looked at Clara.
“How?”
She remained silent.
Then I remembered something.
Two weeks earlier, Clara brought Julian’s laptop to the estate.
She claimed she needed help printing invitation lists.
She spent an hour inside my late husband’s study.
The security footage showed more.
Clara had photographed the password sheet Julian once kept inside his travel bag.
Sophie stood near the door watching.
Marcus joined them through a video call.
They were not planning flowers.
They were planning a theft.
Julian looked physically ill.
“How long?”
Clara finally answered.
“Marcus said the company was already unstable.”
“He said you would lose everything eventually.”
“So you decided to steal it first?”
“I was protecting my future.”
“You lied about a baby.”
“You forged my approval.”
“You attacked my mother.”
Clara’s voice rose.
“Your mother was going to destroy the wedding.”
“She refused to transfer the estate.”
“That house was supposed to become ours.”
I looked at her.
“It was never offered to you.”
“You let Julian believe it would be.”
“No.”
“You encouraged yourself to believe it.”
The estate belonged to the Whitmore Family Trust.
Julian was the future beneficiary.
However, marriage did not give Clara ownership.
The trust included protections against fraud, coercion, and criminal conduct.
By assaulting me and attempting to manipulate Julian, she had triggered a mandatory investigation.
Evelyn called the bank.
The remaining company funds were frozen.
Corporate security disabled Marcus’s access.
Police were notified.
Clara’s confidence finally broke.
She grabbed Julian’s arm.
“We can fix this.”
He pulled away.
“There is no we.”
“You love me.”
“I loved who you pretended to be.”
Sophie began crying.
She claimed Clara forced her to help.
Clara turned on her immediately.
“You enjoyed every second.”
Sophie shouted back.
“You said we would both be rich.”
The sisters began exposing each other in the garden.
Sophie admitted they had sold several pieces of my jewelry.
Clara admitted Marcus created fake invoices through Julian’s company.
Both insisted the other had suggested the pregnancy lie.
Julian stood silently as the future he imagined collapsed around him.
Then his phone rang.
It was the corporate legal director.
Marcus had disappeared.
His office was empty.
His computer had been wiped.
And one company aircraft had departed Chicago less than twenty minutes earlier.
The passenger list contained three names.
Marcus Vale.
A private pilot.
And Clara Whitmore.
Clara stared at the record.
“That’s impossible.”
May you like
She was standing in front of us.
The woman on the plane was using her identity.
