Chapter 10 - JULIAN STRIKES BACK
Vanessa told us Adrian had recruited Julian years earlier.
Julian wanted status.
Adrian wanted control of the family trust.
Together, they built management companies around assets they could not own directly.
The plan was slow.
Make Laurent Heritage dependent on Vale Hospitality.
Move debt.
Shift trademarks.
Change contracts.
Then force a restructuring during a manufactured liquidity crisis.
I stared at her.
“And you?”
She swallowed.
“I was supposed to help convince him you were unstable.”
Dad stood so fast his chair hit the wall.
Vanessa flinched.
I did not.
“How?”
“Photographs.”
“Arguments.”
“Stories to staff.”
“Anything that made Julian look like the reasonable spouse.”
My skin crawled.
She had been preparing a narrative.
Not just replacing me.
Discrediting me.
Then Vanessa said.
“But Julian changed the deal.”
He promised her the penthouse.
Equity.
A board seat.
Then she discovered none of those things were his to give.
So she began recording him.
“Why hide the card in my pendant?”
She looked ashamed.
“Because I knew you’d eventually come looking for it.”
It was almost clever.
Almost.
Then my phone rang.
Julian.
I answered.
His voice was calm again.
Too calm.
“Elena, check the news.”
I opened the first financial site.
Headline.
LAURENT RESORT EMPIRE FACES OWNERSHIP CRISIS.
Julian had gone public.
May you like
And he was claiming I had staged an illegal family takeover.
