Chapter 1 - The Sealed Vault
The heavy oak doors of the chapel slammed shut with a deafening thud.
Julian stumbled backward, his tears burning against his flushed, pale cheeks.
Four towering security guards in dark suits immediately stepped between him and the mahogany coffin.
"Step back, young master," the head security guard growled with zero emotion.
Julian glared past them at Maria, his eyes wide with raw desperation and fury.
"She is lying!" Julian screamed, his voice cracking under the weight of his grief.
"My father was completely healthy just two days ago!" he shouted at the silent crowd.
Maria slowly adjusted her pearl necklace without batting an eyelid.
Her face remained a cold, unreadable mask of aristocratic detachment.
"Take him outside," Maria commanded the guards in a serene, chilling tone.
"He is hysterical with grief and putting everyone in this room at risk of contamination," she added smoothly.
Two guards grabbed Julian violently by his arms, dragging his knees across the polished marble floor.
"Let go of me!" Julian thrashed frantically against their iron grip.
"Father!" he screamed toward the quiet casket one last time.
Inside the suffocating, pitch-black space behind the chapel's hollow wall, Arthur heard his son's desperate cries.
Arthur pounded his bound fists against the wooden interior, but the thick soundproof padding absorbed every hit.
The heavy black duct tape across his mouth turned his panicked screams into muffled, pathetic grunts.
Cold sweat poured down Arthur's forehead into his terrified eyes.
Through the narrow millimeter-wide gap in the paneling, he watched Maria standing proudly before the decoy coffin.
Maria turned her head slightly toward the hidden gap and caught Arthur's wide, helpless gaze.
She offered him a slow, sadistic smile that made his blood run cold.
"You built a global empire, Arthur," Maria whispered softly under her breath, entirely unheard by the mourners.
"And now, you will watch your foolish son lose every single penny from the dark," she muttered with pure venom.
The guards shoved Julian out into the pouring rain and slammed the heavy chapel gates shut.
Julian fell to his knees on the slick asphalt, his clothes instantly soaked.
He slammed his fists against the cold iron bars until his knuckles bled.
A low rumble of thunder shook the dark evening sky overhead.
As rain washed the blood from his hands, Julian looked up at the top window of the chapel annex.
He noticed a faint silhouette thrashing frantically behind the dark curtains.
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It was not the silhouette of a dead man.
It was the terrifying outline of a living human tied to a chair.
