Chapter 3 - The Brother in the Shadows
The private consultation room on the hospital’s fourth floor was quiet and dark. Marcus Vance sat across from Caleb Reed, a heavy leather briefcase resting on his knees. Marcus had the same sharp, aristocratic jawline as his older brother Julian, but where Julian was vain and theatrical, Marcus was deliberate, lethal, and famously incorruptible. Three years earlier, Julian had pushed Marcus out of the family corporation through a series of fraudulent proxy votes, stealing the CEO title that their father had intended for Marcus.
Since then, Marcus had become one of the most feared corporate prosecutors and forensic litigators in Illinois.
"Let me hear it," Marcus said, his voice flat.
Caleb plugged the smartwatch’s decrypted memory drive into Marcus’s laptop. The high-definition audio file began to play.
The sound of a heavy struggle. A sharp gasp of pain. The dull, sickening sound of a blade tearing fabric and flesh.
“If you ever touch Selena again, I swear I’ll kill you.”
The thud of a body collapsing. Then, footsteps stepping over the microphone.
“She’s gone.”
“I did it, Selena. Just like you said.”
“We’re free.”
Marcus listened to the entire sequence without blinking, but the veins along his temple pulsed with dangerous rage. He closed the laptop with a quiet click. "He didn't just stab her in a fit of rage. That was premeditated conspiracy to commit murder. Selena orchestrated the provocation, and Julian executed the attack."
"Can you protect her, Marcus?" Caleb asked, leaning forward. "Julian controls a four-billion-dollar logistics firm. He has half the city's private security contractors on retainer. Selena was just at the administration desk an hour ago, trying to bribe a clerk for Nora's chart notes."
Marcus opened his briefcase and pulled out an official protective custody document bearing the golden seal of the Illinois Attorney General’s Office. "Julian thinks he is playing a local criminal game. He doesn't know that for the past eight months, the Department of Justice has been investigating Vance Global for international maritime trade violations and offshore money laundering. Nora was my secret corporate source before the stabbing. She provided me with the encrypted balance sheets."
"So the attack wasn't just about Selena?" Caleb asked, stunned.
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"Julian suspected Nora had discovered the secondary ledger in his study safe," Marcus explained, his eyes cold as flint. "Selena’s scratch was simply the theatrical excuse Julian needed to pull the trigger before Nora could meet with federal agents. He thought he could kill two birds with one stone: eliminate the whistleblower and run away with his college girlfriend. But he didn't realize Nora was three steps ahead of him."
Marcus stood up, adjusting his coat. "Tonight, we transfer Nora to a secure military medical facility outside Great Lakes Naval Station under an assumed identity. As far as the public and Julian are concerned, Nora will remain in a 'critical, uncommunicative coma' at Northwestern. Let Julian dig his own grave in the press. When he announces her resignation from the corporate trusts, we will spring the trap."
