Chapter 14 - Judgment in the Boardroom
Marcus scrambled backward out of his leather executive chair, knocking over a pitcher of ice water that shattered across the mahogany table. ""Julian! You're... you're alive?""
""Disappointed, brother?"" Julian asked, walking slowly into the room.
Two Vance private security officers moved toward Julian, but Julian simply looked at them with cold, terrifying authority. ""Touch me, and you spend the rest of your natural lives in a federal penitentiary. Sit down.""
The guards instantly stood down, heads bowed.
Victoria’s composure cracked, revealing the hysterical viper beneath. ""This is an outrage! Security, remove this woman! She is a disgraced, unlicensed criminal who kidnapped my grandson's corpse!""
""My son is very much alive, Victoria,"" Julian said calmly, stopping at the head of the table. ""No thanks to the potassium cyanide you paid Dr. Arthur Sterling two million dollars to administer.""
""That's a slanderous lie!"" Victoria shrieked. ""Sterling is an esteemed physician! You have no proof! No evidence!""
Elena stepped forward to the digital control podium at the head of the boardroom. With smooth, practiced hands, she plugged an encrypted flash drive directly into the master projector port.
""Dr. Sterling is dead, Mrs. Vance,"" Elena announced clearly, her voice cutting through the room like a surgical scalpel. ""Killed by your own snipers last night at the Northside warehouse.""
The boardroom's giant interactive screen lit up.
A crystal-clear audio recording began to play—Sterling’s dying, wheezing voice recorded on Julian’s satellite phone:
""Not just Victoria... Marcus... and the bank documents... the trust fund... potassium poisoning...""
Gasps erupted around the table. The board members backed away from Victoria and Marcus as if they carried the plague.
""Next,"" Elena said, tapping the touchscreen. ""Here is the mass-spectrometry chemical analysis of the infant formula recovered from the estate nursery, showing identical batch tags to the cyanide compounds purchased by Marcus Vance’s shell pharmaceutical company in Delaware three weeks ago.""
Marcus turned as white as a bedsheet. He made a desperate lunge toward the emergency exit behind the boardroom.
The doors burst open from the outside.
Six armed Federal Marshals, accompanied by the city’s District Attorney, poured into the room, their badges gleaming in the morning light.
""Marcus Vance, Victoria Vance,"" the District Attorney announced, his voice booming over the chaos. ""You are under arrest for conspiracy to commit capital murder, attempted murder of an infant, and the first-degree homicide of Dr. Arthur Sterling. Hands behind your backs!""
Victoria screamed, clawing at the agents as the cold steel handcuffs snapped around her wrists. ""Julian! You can't do this! I am family! I raised you!""
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Julian didn't even look at her as she was dragged out into the corridor, her frantic shrieks fading down the marble hallway.
He turned his gaze entirely to Elena and his son.
