Chapter 134: Taking in the Past

"Please... who do you think runs your intel?" Victoria set her tablet down on the marble. "Three hundred of the biggest gossips in New York were in that room tonight. The wire hit my desk twenty minutes ago saying you took the title, and that the founder basically gave you the building and a billion in cash for free."

Shaking his head at how fast rumors spread, Jude loosened his collar and sat down on the armchair across from her.

Seeing how unusually deep in thought he looked, Victoria raised an eyebrow.

"You just walked out of Midtown with the most exclusive club in the city for pocket change. Why do you look like someone handed you a headache instead of a prize?"

Jude stayed quiet for two seconds before looking right at her. "Victoria, I need your team to run a top-priority background check on someone tonight."

"The founder...Chelsea Lee, right?" Victoria said without missing a beat.

Jude stared at her, stunned. "Since when do you read minds?"

"Just connecting the dots," Victoria smiled faintly, picking up a thin folder already sitting by her tablet. "The second I heard what went down at the party, I had our West Coast team dig into the sealed files. Everything she probably told you tonight is true. Chelsea and your late mom, Sharon, grew up together in the Beverly Hills mansion. But Chelsea’s real dad wasn’t Richard Kensington... she was the secret daughter of a titan at the absolute top of West Coast politics and money. Check the state obituaries from two months ago and you’ll see his name immediately. Because of the crosshairs on him, Chelsea was hidden away in the UK for almost twenty years, and only came back after he died."

Jude took the folder, his breath catching. "So your people verified it... Chelsea really is my mom’s sister?"

"Raised as sisters under the same roof, yes," Victoria nodded seriously. "Why else would a woman like that hand you a multi-billion-dollar landmark for literally nothing?"

"She’s really my aunt?!"

"And don’t sleep on this aunt of yours, Jude," Victoria added, genuine respect in her voice. "Even while based in Europe for the last ten years, Chelsea secretly built and runs over ten public companies here at home. Her business game is elite, and her overseas connections are insane... three years ago she was granted an official British noble title, and she’s close personal friends with the British Royal Princess. Any single line on that paper would make Wall Street drop to its knees, and she has all of them."

Jude sat frozen, staring at the file with his eyes wide open.

"Wait... Chelsea is a titled British noble and close to royal circles?!"

"Confirmed through London records an hour ago," Victoria nodded.

"Now you see how insane your aunt’s pedigree really is, don’t you?" Victoria Vance smiled faintly. "Honestly, Jude, sometimes I wonder what kind of luck you were born with, now a long-lost aunt with royal European backing drops out of nowhere to pave the road for you. If Wall Street found out about this, every rich kid in the city would lose his mind with jealousy."

Jude tossed the folder onto the table and let out a quiet breath. "What’s there to be jealous of? Half the time, living a normal, quiet life comes with a lot fewer headaches."

Victoria rolled her eyes. "Only a guy sitting on a mountain of gold complains about the view. That said, now that Chelsea Lee is back for good, you should know that her real dad left her a massive personal legacy of his own."

"Another trust fund?" Jude asked, resting his chin on his knuckles.

"Money, money, money... is cash the only thing that registers in your head?" Victoria shook her head.

"You’re the one who just brought up her inheritance," Jude pointed out.

"At your level and hers, inheritance stopped meaning bank accounts a long time ago," Victoria explained, her tone turning serious. "With over ten public companies already in her pocket, Chelsea has more money than she could burn in ten lifetimes. What her father really left behind is a massive web of political, military, and old-guard loyalties across the country. That invisible network is what makes Chelsea Lee truly untouchable."

Jude’s eyes narrowed slightly. "Did her real dad have no other kids besides her?"

"He had one legitimate son years ago," Victoria said, tapping a page in the file. "Twelve years back, though, that son died in a high-speed car crash on the West Coast. That left Chelsea as the sole surviving heir to his entire legacy. That crash was the main reason her father kept her locked away safely in England for almost twenty years until he died and the smoke cleared."

Jude looked at his chief lawyer with mild curiosity. "Your team pulled thirty years of sealed files in under an hour. Did you already know about my connection to Chelsea before tonight?"

"Even my network can’t read the future," Victoria said. "Before tonight, Chelsea’s ownership of the Heavens Club was buried behind layers of European blind trusts that nobody had any reason to link to you. But the second she stepped onto that stage and claimed the club under her own name, cross-referencing her London exit papers against your mother Sharon’s Beverly Hills records took twenty minutes."

Jude nodded, staying quiet.

Having Victoria’s independent team confirm every single detail removed any lingering doub... though finding out overnight that he had a titled British aunt and a hostile family dynasty in Beverly Hills was still a lot to take in before morning.

...

The next day, after a busy morning that saw him teach his masterclass at the conservatory, rescue Sophie Reed from Vanessa Thorne’s ambush, and honor his noon lunch commitment with Harrison Liu, Jude found time in the afternoon to inspect the Heavens Club in Midtown.

He stepped out of his car in front of the entrance.

Before leaving her suite last night, he had planned to follow up with General Manager Vanessa to go over how the place actually worked.