Chapter 2: The Name on the Birth Certificate
Julian didn't move.
He stood with the unsigned document in his hand, staring at the locked door, listening to Victoria's breathing on the other side.
Daniel leaned close and whispered.
"Sir.
The lab just called.
The substance in Allison's water glass was a s*dative.
Strong enough to make someone unconscious in under twenty minutes."
Not drunk.
Poisoned.
Julian set the authorization face-down on the desk.
"Julian." Victoria's voice came again, still sweet, still patient.
"I can hear you in there.
Don't make this difficult."
He unlocked the door.
Victoria stepped inside wearing that same perfect smile, diamonds catching the light.
Then her eyes dropped to the desk.
To the unsigned document.
The smile didn't disappear.
But something behind it did.
"You haven't signed yet," she said quietly.
"Tell me about Elliot Ricci."
A pause.
Just one second too long.
"I don't know what you're talking about."
Julian picked up his phone and turned the screen toward her.
It showed a photograph Daniel had just pulled from the trust records — a birth certificate dated twenty-two years ago.
The mother's name was blank.
The father's name read: *Giovanni Ricci.*
His father.
Victoria's perfectly manicured fingers tightened around her clutch.
"Where did you get that?"
Julian's voice dropped to almost nothing.
"Who is the boy in that hospital photograph, Victoria?"
She said nothing.
But her eyes moved — just for a moment — toward the window.
Someone was standing in the garden below.
---
What Julian found out next about Elliot — and what Victoria had been hiding for over two decades — is more shocking than anything that happened at that party.
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