Billionaire Declares His Wife Dead To Marry An Heiress — Then Finds Her Scrubbing His Hotel Lobby

Claire gripped the edge of the mahogany desk, trying to process Marcus’s words. "Why would you do that? You don't even know me."

"I know Julian Vance," Marcus replied, his expression hardening. "He’s been pitching an investment expansion to our board for six months. My father trusts him. My sister is obsessed with him. But I’ve watched him manipulate people. Today proved everything I suspected."

Marcus walked over to a glass cabinet, poured a glass of water, and set it down in front of her. "The drive you have—does it contain the routing numbers for the offshore transfer from the June third transaction?"

Claire nodded slowly. "Yes. The ones routed through the Panama account under my father's name."

"Good," Marcus said. "Because Julian is planning to use that exact account tonight to deposit the twenty-million-dollar buy-in from the Sterling board. He's framing my family the same way he framed your father."

Claire realized the scale of Julian’s plan. He wasn't just hiding from his past; he was building a massive escape strategy. Once the board transferred the funds, Julian could trigger another 'disappearance' or force Victoria into a legal corner, leaving the Sterlings ruined while he walked away with tens of millions.

"So what do we do?" Claire asked, her fear slowly transforming into a cold, sharp resolve.

"We let him think he's won," Marcus said, leaning down so he was eye-level with her. "You are going to meet him at five-thirty in the VIP lounge. You're going to hand him a drive. But it won't be the original."

"A dummy drive?"

"A modified drive," Marcus corrected. "It will look identical to yours, but the moment he plugs it into his laptop to verify the contents, it will mirror his local files directly to my private server. Every hidden file, every password, every off-ledger transaction."