Chapter 5 - The Purge of the ValesWhile Gabriel sat in Claire’s warm kitchen, drying off with a white towel while sipping hot tea, his brother Liam and intelligence director Marcus executed the total, apocalyptic destruction of the Vale family.
At 3:00 AM, inside a private warehouse on Pier 42 along the Hudson River, Julian Vale—a fifty-eight-year-old corrupt real estate mogul—sat bound to a steel chair, sweating profusely, flanked by four armed Cross Freight operators.
Serena Vale stood nearby in heavy steel handcuffs, her silver designer dress rumpled, her makeup ruined by hysterical tears as she thrashed against two guards.
The heavy sliding doors of the warehouse opened.
Liam Cross walked into the room wearing a dark coat, holding a digital tablet connected directly to the federal prosecutor's office.
"Liam! Please!" Julian Vale shrieked, his voice cracking into high, pathetic squeaks. "This is a mistake! My daughter and I were just trying to protect the Cross family legacy from a low-class girl—"
THWACK!
Liam delivered a thunderous backhand slap across Julian Vale’s face that sent him reeling sideways against his bonds.
"Keep my sister-in-law's name out of your mouth, Vale," Liam growled, his storm-gray eyes burning with lethal fury. "You used the Genovese name to threaten the pregnant wife of Gabriel Cross. Do you have any idea what that means?"
Liam tapped the digital tablet screen, projecting certified federal wiretaps and bank seizure notices onto the wall screen:
FEDERAL RICO INDICTMENTS: Issued against Julian Vale and Vale Development Group for Extortion, Witness Intimidation, and Fraud.
ASSET FORFEITURE DECREE: Seizing one hundred percent of the Vale family’s real estate holdings, penthouse apartments, and offshore accounts.
IMMEDIATE ARREST WARRANTS: Executed by federal marshals waiting outside the pier.
Serena let out a high-pitched, hysterical shriek, collapsing flat onto the concrete floorboards in total, panic-stricken ruin.
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"Your entire family is going to a federal maximum-security penitentiary for twenty years, Serena," Liam revealed coldly, turning his back on them. "And if you ever breathe the name 'Claire Bennett' or 'Cross' again... you won't live to see your trial."
Federal Marshals swept into the warehouse, dragging Julian and Serena Vale away in heavy chains to face lifetime imprisonment, permanently erasing their predatory shadow from New York society.
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