Chapter 5 - The Name of the Ghost
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Camilla Vance.
The name echoed in Mauricio's mind like a gunshot in an empty canyon. He pushed his chair back from the desk, his heart hammering violently against his ribs.
He knew that name. Everyone in Chicago's elite financial circles knew that name.
Fifteen years ago, the Vance family had controlled half the commercial real estate in the city. They were titans, untouchable and vastly wealthy. But Arthur Jacobs—Mauricio’s father—had waged a ruthless, bloodthirsty corporate war against them. It was a hostile takeover that had completely decimated the Vance empire, leaving the family bankrupt and utterly disgraced.
The patriarch, Richard Vance, had died of a sudden heart attack shortly after losing everything.
His only daughter, Camilla, had inherited nothing but debts and a ruined name. She had vanished from high society, disappearing into the dark, forgotten corners of the city. The rumors claimed she had succumbed to addiction, or perhaps fled the country entirely.
But according to the official document sitting on Mauricio's desk, Camilla Vance hadn't fled. She had stayed in Chicago. And six years ago, she had given birth to a daughter.
Renata.
Mauricio grabbed the second page of the investigator's report. His eyes darted frantically across the dense paragraphs of typed text.
Subject Camilla Vance found deceased exactly three days after the birth of the child. Official cause of death listed as an accidental overdose. However, autopsy reports were sealed by a local judge with known financial ties to Jacobs Enterprises.
Mauricio felt physically sick. He clamped a hand over his mouth, suppressing the sudden, violent urge to vomit.
His father hadn't just ruined the Vance family financially. He had hunted them down.
He flipped to the third page. It was a financial audit trail, tracing the money that had flowed out of the Vance estate right before its collapse.
A massive, untouchable trust fund was established by Richard Vance prior to his bankruptcy. The trust is locked and accumulates interest independently. The sole beneficiary is listed as the first-born heir of Camilla Vance. Current estimated value: $450 million. The trust remains locked until the child is claimed by a verified biological guardian, or until the child reaches the age of eighteen.
The pieces of the horrific puzzle suddenly slammed into place with terrifying clarity.
His parents didn't hate Renata because she was adopted.
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They hated her because she was the sole living heir to a half-billion-dollar fortune that Arthur Jacobs had spent fifteen years desperately trying to steal.
And Mauricio had blindly, unknowingly walked into an agency and adopted the exact child his father was trying to control.
