Chapter 3: The Cold Inventory
"Mr... Mr. Vance?" Tyler stammered, the color draining entirely from his face until his skin resembled chalk. "The Vance Energy magnate? What is this?"
Arthur turned slowly, his eyes narrowing into cold slits of ice. "You're standing on ground you never earned, speaking to a woman whose lineage built this entire district."
Jonathan Sterling snapped open a heavy leather briefcase, pulling out a thick ream of embossed documents. "Tyler Hayes. Effective five minutes ago, Vance Capital has exercised its full recall clause on the venture capital credit line that funded your firm, Horizon Global."
"What?!" Chloe shrieked, backing away from Tyler. "Tyler, what does that mean?"
"It means," Sterling replied with brutal precision, "Horizon Global has an outstanding loan balance of sixty-eight million dollars due by midnight. Furthermore, this estate—purchased through a shell company under the assumption of family trust funds—is fully deeded under Arthur Vance’s private estate trust. You are trespassing."
Tyler’s knees visibly shook. "Elena... wait! This is a misunderstanding! I—Chloe seduced me, she tricked me! We're married! We’re having a child!"
"You threw my daughter and grandchild onto the street in the rain," Arthur said, his tone deadly quiet. "You will leave this house within sixty seconds, or my security detail will remove you physically."
"You can't do this!" Tyler yelled, desperate. "I have rights! Half of everything is mine!"
"You signed a prenuptial agreement drafted by me," Sterling said with a ghost of a smile. "Infidelity and domestic abandonment forfeit all claims. You leave with the clothes on your back."
May you like
Arthur gently guided me into the limousine. "Let’s go home, darling. The cleanup begins now."
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