Chapter 9
Before Beatrice could process her father's words, the heavy boardroom doors opened once more. This time, it wasn't corporate counsel or anxious executives who entered, but two men in dark suits displaying federal badges with quiet authority. Special Agent Miller of the FBI Financial Crimes Division surveyed the room before fixing his gaze directly on Beatrice Vance.
Beatrice rose from her chair so fast it scraped loudly against the marble floor. "What is the meaning of this? I am the interim president of Vance Global Logistics! You cannot simply interrupt a board session without a court order!"
Agent Miller stepped forward, holding out a thick document stamped with a federal seal. "Beatrice Vance, you are being detained for questioning regarding the alleged embezzlement of four million dollars in corporate pension funds and wire fraud involving offshore shell corporations."
The boardroom erupted into chaos. Whispers and gasps echoed from the surrounding executives as several board members scrambled backward from the table as if contamination were airborne. Beatrice stared at the federal agent, her face turning chalk white, her carefully constructed composure fracturing instantly.
"This is a forgery!" Beatrice screamed, her voice losing its polished veneer. She spun around to face her father, who stood leaning on his cane with absolute, terrifying calm. "You did this! You set me up! You manufactured those financial records just to trap me!"
Arthur walked slowly around the end of the table, stopping just a few feet from his daughter. He looked down at her with eyes like chips of winter ice. "You spent six months systematically embezzling from the employee pension fund to finance your little proxy war, Beatrice. You thought your clever offshore accounts were invisible. But a Vance always audits his own house before allowing outsiders in."
"You framed me!" she shrieked, lunging forward, but Agent Miller stepped smoothly between them, grasping her arm with firm, professional restraint. "You sacrificed Julian just to lure me into signing those operational transfer documents! The signature I just executed legally binds me to the entire fraudulent ledger!"
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"You signed it willingly, in front of twelve corporate witnesses and federal counsel," Walter Vance noted dryly, adjusting his glasses. "That’s what we call an open-and-shut case of executive liability."
As the federal agents escorted a sobbing, furious Beatrice toward the double doors, the room fell back into a stunned, horrified silence. The executives seated around the table looked at Arthur with newfound terror. They realized in that single moment that the Vance patriarch was not a weakening old man sliding toward retirement; he was an apex predator who had just devoured his own children to preserve his dynasty.
