Chapter 12 - The Phantom Brother
Before I could demand an answer, the glass door of the visitor's lobby opened, and a man walked in who made my blood run cold. He was six-foot-two, possessed my jawline, and carried himself with the exact ruthless elegance I had spent a lifetime trying to shed. Victor Whitmore—Margaret’s secret firstborn son from a hidden marriage in London before she ever met my father. "Hello, little brother," Victor said, his British accent smooth as silk and cold as ice. Victor was Margaret’s ultimate insurance policy. Raised in secret, funded through offshore accounts, and trained at Oxford to be a corporate assassin, he had been kept in the shadows until the family legacy was threatened. Within twenty-four hours of his arrival in Chicago, Victor filed an emergency injunction in probate court, claiming that our father’s original will contained a fraud clause. He wasn't just coming for the company; he filed for emergency custody of Leo, Sam, and Julian, producing forged medical records alleging that Claire suffered from severe, untreated psychological trauma that rendered her an unfit mother. "I'm taking back what Margaret built," Victor told the press outside the courthouse. "And I'm saving my nephews from a woman who married for money."
