Chapter 6 - The Fall of Arthur VanceArthur Vance jumped out of his chair at the head table, his hands trembling violently against the linen tablecloth. "Security! Remove these people! She has no legal standing in this company!"
Dante didn't raise his voice. He took three slow, deliberate steps forward, setting an encrypted tablet flat onto the podium directly in front of the two hundred corporate guests.
The projection screen above the stage illuminated with high-definition digital text:
FEDERAL HOMICIDE & RACKETEERING INDICTMENTS — Issued at 6:00 PM today by the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois.
FORENSIC EVIDENCE: Wiretaps and offshore bank records proving Arthur Vance paid two million dollars for the car bombing that took Isabella Moretti's life three years ago.
TRANSFER OF VANCE SHIPPING PROXY: Reverting ninety percent of European logistics equity directly to Elena Vance & The Isabella Moretti Twin Trust.
Arthur Vance let out a guttural, frantic shriek, reaching for a sidearm inside his coat.
THWIP!
Before his hand could touch the holster, Leo fired a single suppressed round from the balcony, shattering Arthur's wrist and knocking him flat onto the carpeted floorboards.
"ARGH!" Arthur groaned in agony, clutching his bloody wrist as thirty Federal Marshals swept into the ballroom from the side doors.
CLICK. CLICK.
Heavy steel handcuffs locked around Arthur Vance’s wrists as he wept in total, groveling defeat, dragged away by federal marshals to face lifetime imprisonment in a maximum-security facility without parole.
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Dante stepped up to the podium, wrapping his broad arm around my waist, pulling my body flush against his solid chest, looking out over the sea of Chicago's corporate elite.
"Ladies and gentlemen," Dante announced flatly. His thunderous baritone echoed through the speakers with absolute, unyielding authority. "My wife, Donna Elena Vance Moretti, remains the sole, undisputed matriarch of the Moretti and Vance family empire."
