Chapter 3: The Viral Execution
The internet was burning.
Within four hours of the ambulance rushing a comatose Arthur Sterling to the hospital, a meticulously edited video exploded across every major social platform. The headline was designed to be absolute clickbait poison: Billionaire's "Lost Heir" Exposed: The Violent Truth Behind the Sterling Tragedy.
The video, leaked anonymously by Eleanor, was a masterclass in manipulation. It showed spliced, out-of-context clips of the disastrous wedding, making it look like Leo had aggressively smashed the cello himself in a fit of rage to extort money. Worse, it featured deep-faked audio of Leo allegedly bragging about "conning the old man out of his fortune."
But the final nail in the coffin was the security footage from the mansion hallway, perfectly timed to show Leo running into Arthur's room right before Beatrice started screaming.
The public execution was swift and merciless. Millions of comments flooded in, branding Leo a sociopathic grifter, a violent thug, and a murderer in the making. The board of directors of Sterling Global immediately suspended Leo, locking him out of the company accounts and barring him from the hospital.
Leo sat alone in a cheap, rented motel room on the outskirts of the city, the neon sign buzzing outside his window. His phone buzzed endlessly with death threats. He had lost everything again. They had won.
"They planned it perfectly," Leo whispered to himself, staring at his reflection in the cracked bathroom mirror. "They took the cello. They took my mother's legacy. Now they're taking my grandfather."
He buried his face in his hands, on the verge of breaking. But then, he remembered the hard drive he had seen Eleanor clutching in the hallway.
If Beatrice had poisoned Arthur, what was Eleanor doing in the study?
Leo grabbed his laptop. Before the board had locked him out, Arthur had given him backdoor administrator access to the mansion's private server—a detail Eleanor and Beatrice didn't know. His fingers flew across the keyboard. He bypassed the new security protocols they had hastily erected.
He searched for the hidden nanny-cams Arthur had installed in his private study years ago, the ones disguised as bookshelf ornaments. The files from the night of the poisoning had been deleted, but they hadn't been scrubbed from the cloud backup.
At 3:00 AM, the progress bar hit 100%. The video file opened.
Leo watched as Eleanor sneaked into the study, logged into Arthur's terminal, and initiated a massive, illegal transfer of company funds to an offshore account in the Cayman Islands. But that wasn't all. The camera’s microphone picked up a phone call Eleanor made right after the transfer.
"The money is moved," Eleanor’s voice echoed through Leo's laptop speakers. "Beatrice is handling the old man now with the digitalis drops. Make sure the police get the anonymous tip about the boy."
Leo’s breath caught. It was undeniable proof of attempted murder and massive corporate fraud.
Suddenly, a loud, violent pounding hit his motel room door.
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"Police! Open up! We have a warrant for the arrest of Leo Sterling for the attempted murder of Arthur Sterling!"
Leo slammed his laptop shut, shoving it into his backpack. He looked at the heavy iron fire escape outside his window. He had the truth, but if they caught him now, the hard drive would disappear, and he would never see the light of day again. He threw open the window and climbed out into the freezing rain.
