Chapter 11 - The Blood Mandate
Eleanor did not flinch, though her knuckles turned bone-white against the table edge. ""Julian, you are making a spectacle of yourself. Bringing a street tramp and an illegitimate child into a fiduciary meeting is grounds for immediate termination.""
""This child is not illegitimate, Mother,"" Julian countered smoothly, pulling a sealed document from his breast pocket and sliding it toward the corporate secretary. ""This is a certified genetic paternity assay conducted under federal medical chain-of-custody protocols. Leo Vance is my biological son.""
The corporate secretary hastily broke the wax seal, scanning the document with wide, panicked eyes. He looked up at the board members, swallowing hard. ""It's... it's authentic, Madame Vance. The markers are an absolute match.""
""It doesn't matter!"" Victoria intervened shrilly, stepping forward. ""The trust stipulates an heir born within wedlock! You are engaged to me, Julian! That child has no legal claim to the voting shares!""
Julian smiled—a cold, humorless grin that sent a shiver down Richard Sterling's spine. ""You might want to check the city registry as of seven o'clock this morning, Victoria.""
Catherine stepped forward, placing a gold-stamped marriage certificate beside the medical report. ""We were married at dawn by a justice of the peace. The marriage is fully registered and binding under state law.""
Eleanor’s facade finally shattered. Her eyes flared with venomous rage as she slammed both palms onto the table, rising to her feet. ""Invalid! I will have the marriage annulled by noon! You married an indigent under duress to bypass this board! I built this empire, Julian! I will not let a penniless gutter-girl inherit what is mine!""
""You didn't build this empire, Eleanor,"" Julian whispered, his voice dangerously soft as he pulled Arthur Vance's leather ledger from his leather folio. ""You hollowed it out.""
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He opened the first page, projecting the digitized forensic scans onto the massive boardroom display screens behind him. ""For thirty years, you and Richard Sterling have embezzled forty-two billion dollars from the Vance pension funds to cover unrecorded losses in maritime shipping.""
The room erupted into absolute pandemonium. Directors shouted over one another, while Richard Sterling collapsed back into his chair, clutching his chest in breathless shock.
