Chapter 4 - The House of Cards"Turn it off! Turn it off!" Adrian screamed, lunging forward to grab the projector remote, but two security guards intercepted him instantly, pinning his arms behind his back and forcing him down into his executive chair.
"Unhand me! Do you know who I am?!" Adrian roared, thrashing wildly.
"We know exactly who you are, Mr. Vance," Arthur Sterling said smoothly, opening a thick legal binder and placing a stack of certified documents directly in front of Adrian’s face. "Let’s review your current liabilities, shall we?"
Arthur began reading aloud with ruthless precision.
"First: Under the prenuptial agreement you insisted upon signing seven years ago—an agreement your own lawyer drafted, which explicitly waived your right to any Sterling family assets in the event of financial misconduct—you entered this marriage with zero equity.
Second: Forensic accounting audits completed at 4:00 AM this morning reveal that over the past twenty-four hours, you systematically funneled eighty-five thousand dollars of corporate discretionary funds into an unauthorized offshore account registered under Chloe Sinclair’s name to finance her apartment lease and luxury purchases. That constitutes federal wire fraud and grand embezzlement.
Third: Your executive apartment in Lincoln Park? Leased under a corporate subsidiary wholly owned by the Sterling Trust. Your lease is hereby terminated effective immediately. Eviction notices are currently being delivered to your mistress by county deputies."
Adrian stopped struggling. His chest heaved violently, air whistling through his teeth as the sheer, colossal scale of his destruction crashed down upon him.
"You can't do this," Adrian whimpered, his voice dropping into a pathetic, desperate whine. "I have meetings! I have investors! I have Chloe!"
"Chloe blocked your number fifteen minutes ago when her father's bank accounts were frozen pending an investigation into her collusion with your embezzlement scheme," my mother said flatly, standing up from the head of the table. "And as for your investors, they were informed of your termination for corporate fraud at 9:00 AM."
She turned toward the door, pausing just before she crossed the threshold.
May you like
"Oh, and Adrian?" she added coldly. "Victoria filed for full, sole legal and physical custody of our three grandsons this morning. Your visitation rights? Supervised. In a municipal facility. Once a month. If your criminal trial allows for it."
She walked out of the boardroom, the security guards dragging a completely shattered, weeping Adrian Vance out of his chair and dumping him unceremoniously outside the executive suite doors before closing them for good.
