Chapter 3 - The Broken Glass and the Silver Dress
Julian Sterlingâthe corporate attorneyâstepped smoothly into Arthur Vance's path, catching the older man's wrist in mid-air with effortless, brutal precision.
"Touch that phone, Arthur," Julian said, his voice smooth as silk and razor-sharp as diamond, "and the emergency asset seizure warrants unsealed at five o'clock this afternoon by the United States District Court will execute forty-five minutes early."
Arthur froze, his fingers paralyzed around his phone, his aristocratic composure cracking into wide-eyed, sweating panic.
"What... what asset warrants?" Arthur gasped.
Marcus Sterlingâour family's forensic investigatorâstepped forward, opening a heavy carbon-fiber briefcase, pulling out an unsealed legal portfolio stamped with the gold seal of the Department of Justice:
SNAP.
"While you were upstairs drinking twenty-year-old scotch and watching your son assault my sister, Arthur," Marcus announced in a booming baritone that rattled the chandeliers, "our forensic accounting intelligence unit finalized the audit of Vance Consolidated Construction."
Marcus turned his gaze onto Clover, who was shivering against the grand piano, her silver dress stained, clutching her throat in terror.
"Miss Clover Vance," Marcus continued with clinical detachment. "Or should we use your legal name: Clover Sterling-Croft? The unregistered lobbyist who has been laundering municipal concrete bids through shell corporations in the Cayman Islands for eight months."
Cloverâs face went pale as drywall. Her champagne flute slipped from her fingers, shattering across the keys of the piano:
CLINK-SMASH.
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"Isaac told me Flora came from nothing!" Clover wept hysterically, backing away from the instrument. "He told me she was a charity case with no money! He told me she signed a prenuptial agreement surrendering all claims to the family estate!"
"My sister didn't sign a prenuptial agreement, Miss Croft," Julian Sterling said, smiling coldly. "Because my sister didn't marry into your family's money. Your family was living on hers."
