Chapter 10 - The Fracture of Vanity
Six months after Daniel’s departure, the financial press ran a devastating front-page profile: The Fall of Sterling-Vance: Mismanagement and Hubris at Manhattan’s Most Ambitious Firm.
Victoria’s aggressive overleveraging had collapsed the acquisition deals. Faced with massive losses, the board of directors voted to liquidate the firm’s assets to satisfy creditors. The sprawling penthouse was listed for public auction.
Sitting in the empty living room among stacks of packing boxes, Victoria felt the walls closing in. Her friends from the charity circuit had stopped returning her calls weeks ago. The prestige that had defined her identity had evaporated overnight.
"Pack your bags, Mason," Victoria ordered, her voice brittle as she sifted through legal notices. "We're moving to your grandmother's estate in Palm Beach."
Mason stood by the doorway, his school backpack slung over one shoulder. "I don't want to go to grandmother's."
Victoria turned, her eyes dark with exhaustion and indignation. "What did you say?"
"Grandmother doesn't like me playing in the yard. She says children should be seen and not heard," Mason said quietly, his voice surprisingly firm for a ten-year-old. "And you're never there anyway. You're always at lunch or talking to lawyers."
"I am securing your future!" she flared.
"No, you're not," Mason said, clutching a small envelope in his hand. "You're just mad that Daniel left. He sent me this letter three months ago. He said real men don't run away from people who need them. He invited me to visit him."
Victoria froze. "Give me that."
May you like
"No," Mason stepped back. "He asked about my science project, Mom. You didn't even know I won second place."
Victoria looked at her son as if seeing him for the first time. The cold marble world she had built to protect herself from vulnerability had finally starved everyone inside it.
