Chapter 14 - THE MAN IN THE VIP BOOTH
The revelation hit the concrete room like a shockwave.
Julian Sterling. Leah recognized the name instantly. He was a high-society socialite, a venture capitalist whose face frequently graced the covers of luxury lifestyle magazines. And then, a memory struck Leah with the force of a speeding truck—a fragment of memory from the night of the fall at the Gilded Room that she had buried beneath the trauma.
"He was there," Leah gasped, standing up so abruptly her chair screeched against the concrete floor.
Adam stared at her. "What?"
"The night Noah fell," Leah said, pacing the room, her mind racing at lightspeed. "Before Noah climbed near the balustrade, there was a man sitting in VIP Booth 4, right under the shadows of the velvet drapery. He was wearing a grey bespoke suit with a silver lapel pin shaped like a falcon. He never ordered food. He only ordered scotch, neat. And when Noah fell..."
She stopped, staring at the floor as the horrific visual reconstructed itself in her mind.
"When everyone else screamed," Leah whispered, "when everyone dropped their wine glasses and rushed forward... the man in Booth 4 didn't move. He didn't blink. He just sat there, staring down at the marble floor, watching Noah plunge."
Adam slammed his fist onto the steel desk, rattling the water glasses. "Julian wear that falcon pin everywhere. It’s our family crest."
"He was waiting to watch him hit the floor," Leah said, nausea rising in her throat. "He paid someone to saw the railing. He sat in the booth to confirm the kill. And when I caught Noah... Julian lost forty billion dollars in a single second."
Just then, the security door buzzer sounded. Marcus stepped into the room, holding a encrypted police radio. His expression was grave.
"Leah, Adam, we have a massive problem," Marcus said, keeping his voice low so as not to wake Noah. "The detectives just raided Julian Sterling’s penthouse in the financial district."
May you like
"Did they arrest him?" Adam demanded, surging forward.
"No," Marcus said grimly. "Julian is dead. They found him ten minutes ago in his study with a bullet through his temple. Staged to look like a suicide."
