New York City, 1989.
A city pulsing with excess, neon lights, and whispered secrets. At the center of it all is Julian Gatsby, a mysterious millionaire throwing decadent parties in a high-rise penthouse above Manhattan's elite. Some say he's the hei...
A woman in a long coat clutches a newborn wrapped in a silk blanket embroidered with the initials "J.G." She moves quietly through the early morning fog, leaving the Buchanan estate in the distance behind her.
A black car pulls up. The driver hands her a train ticket and a wad of cash. She hesitates - looking back one last time.
WOMAN (softly) You won't grow up like him.
You won't grow up like- ⸻
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She disappears into the haze, the cry of the baby echoing faintly...
⸻
INT. MICAH'S WORKSHOP - NIGHT
Micah shows Eliza a hidden reel of film - grainy surveillance footage of Julian, years ago, shaking hands with someone listed as "Gabriel Fay"-a presumed-dead political fixer once tied to the Buchanans.
MICAH Your charming new friend Julian? He's not Julian Lester. Not really.
Eliza frowns.
ELIZA Then who is he?
MICAH A mirage. An actor in someone else's play.
Before they can say more, a knock at the door. It's Leo, Julian's silent enforcer.
LEO (calmly) Walk away, Micah. You don't want to drown chasing shadows.
⸻
INT. ELIZA'S APARTMENT - LATER THAT NIGHT
Shaken, Eliza returns home to find Nick Carraway's final journal on her bed - not where she left it.
She flips to the last entry.
"He told me once he believed in the green light, in the future. But what if he left a light behind? A legacy? A child? And I helped hide it."
Eliza's blood runs cold. She flips to a tucked-in note: a train ticket dated September 1925. Same day as the flashback.
⸻
INT. UNDERGROUND LOUNGE - NIGHT
Renee meets with Senator Miriam Cortez, a sleek, ruthless political powerhouse with eyes like razors.
CORTEZ Julian Lester's empire is built on glass. All I need is a hammer.
RENEE I don't want him bruised. I want him gone.
They toast.
RENEE (quiet) For West Egg to breathe again, Gatsby's ghost has to stop haunting it.
⸻
INT. JULIAN'S PENTHOUSE - NIGHT
Julian stands in his glass office, bathed in blue neon light, watching footage of Micah's meeting with Eliza. Leo stands behind him, silent.
