Chapter 5 - The Web of Deceit
By 2:00 AM, the Blackwood mansion’s study had transformed into a tactical war room. Three more analysts from Marcus’s private intelligence firm had arrived, laptops humming, decrypting financial trails and communication logs.
"Ethan, you need to see this," Marcus said, motioning to a file labeled *Montgomery Financials*.
Ethan walked over, a mug of black coffee in his hand. "What did you find?"
"The Montgomery family isn't just broke; they are drowning," Marcus revealed, bringing up a series of frozen bank accounts, foreclosures, and delinquent loans. "Eleanor Montgomery’s late husband left them with thirty million dollars in offshore debt. The estate they live in? It’s mortgaged to the hilt. Madison’s influencer agency is bleeding cash—she’s been buying fake engagement, paying bot farms in Eastern Europe to keep her brand deals alive."
"So the engagement wasn't just a marriage," Ethan observed, his eyes narrowing. "It was a corporate bailout."
"Worse," Marcus continued, pulling up an encrypted document intercepted from Madison’s personal cloud drive. "This is an email sent between Madison and Eleanor three days ago. Look at clause four."
Ethan read the screen:
> *From: Eleanor Montgomery*
> *To: Madison Montgomery*
> *Subject: Trust Fund Alterations*
>
> *"Once the wedding is finalized, Arthur Vance’s power of attorney will be contested under the incapacity clause if we can push Ethan into a psychiatric evaluation. If the child is deemed emotionally unstable, we can petition the court for full legal guardianship over Sophie’s maternal trust fund. That gives us access to the eighty million dollars left by her late mother. The brat doesn't need to be in the picture. A residential boarding school in Gstaad will take her immediately once the paperwork is signed."*
Ethan felt a chill race down his spine. The cruelty on the patio wasn't just a display of temper; it was part of a cold-blooded strategy. They were intentionally terrorizing Sophie, trying to make the child appear erratic and traumatized so they could claim she was unfit, take control of her maternal trust, and send her thousands of miles away.
"They wanted to steal my wife’s legacy to pay off their debts," Ethan said, his voice dropping an octave, terrifying in its stillness.
"And they were willing to break a six-year-old girl’s mind to do it," Marcus added.
Suddenly, Ethan’s phone buzzed with an urgent notification from an alert aggregator.
May you like
"Ethan," Marcus said, looking up from his own tablet. "Madison just went live."
***
