Chapter 2 - The Pink Silk Insult
To fully comprehend the sheer, devastating impact of Leo’s question, one had to look back six months to a moment of deeply calculated, psychological cruelty inflicted by Julian upon his wife, Eleanor.
For their tenth wedding anniversary, Julian had supposedly ordered a custom-made, silk pink backless evening gown from a high-end designer in Paris. He had shown Eleanor the sketches, bragging about how much it cost and how perfectly it would complement her figure for their upcoming charity event. Eleanor, who had spent the last decade supporting Julian’s aggressive climb up the corporate ladder, had been genuinely touched by the gesture.
However, the dress never arrived.
When Eleanor asked about it, Julian immediately deployed his favorite weapon: gaslighting. He aggressively accused her of being ungrateful, claiming that the designer had lost the shipment and that she was making him feel guilty for something entirely out of his control. He screamed at her for hours, twisting the narrative until Eleanor found herself apologizing for even bringing it up.
In reality, the dress had arrived perfectly on time. Julian had simply intercepted the package and handed it directly to his mistress, Chloe.
Chloe, who worked as a junior executive in Julian’s marketing department, took immense, sociopathic pleasure in wearing the clothes Julian bought for his wife. She felt it was the ultimate power move, a physical manifestation of her dominance over Eleanor’s life. Julian and Chloe would frequently joke about the "lost" dress during their secret hotel meetings, laughing at how easily Eleanor had been manipulated.
Julian believed he was an absolute genius. He thought his wife was too naive and too isolated to ever connect the dots, and he considered his young son, Leo, to be nothing more than a background prop in his perfect, wealthy life.
He was incredibly, spectacularly wrong about both of them.
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When Chloe confidently strutted into the Vanguard Corporate Summit wearing the stolen pink silk gown, Julian assumed no one would notice. He had absolutely no idea that an eleven-year-old boy possessed a photographic memory and an unyielding, fierce loyalty to the mother who had raised him.
👉 Read Part 3 to learn how Leo uncovered his father's dark double life.
