Chapter 4 - The Ghost of Sterling Logistics
Margaret opened the heavy leather portfolio she carried, sliding a single sheet of paper across the mahogany desk toward Julian. The paper rustled softly in the heavy silence of the penthouse, the only sound being the distant hum of city traffic below.
Julian leaned forward, his eyes scanning the bold text at the top of the page. It was an emergency board resolution from Sterling Logistics, dated two hours earlier, stripping him of all executive titles and voting rights.
“You can’t do this,” Julian whispered, shaking his head in denial.
“I am the legal CEO! The board answers to me!”
“The board answered to the shares attached to the family trust,” Margaret replied evenly, her voice cutting through his panic like a surgical blade.
“A trust that your father established, and that I retained sole discretionary power over in the event of gross financial negligence. You looted the company pension funds to pay off your gambling debts and Chloe’s ridiculous jewelry collection.”
Chloe gasped, stepping into the dim light with a face contorted in rage.
“You old hypocrite!” Chloe snarled, losing all pretense of polite society.
“You lived in this luxury right alongside us! You wore the diamonds! You flew on the private jets!”
Margaret turned her head slowly, fixing Chloe with a gaze so intensely piercing that the younger woman swallowed hard and took a step back.
“I flew on those jets, Chloe, because I was keeping an eye on the viper my son brought into our home,” Margaret said coldly.
“Every single asset you enjoyed was tracked, cataloged, and reported to the federal investigators over the last twelve months. I built this empire with my late husband. I will be damned if I let two parasites burn it to the ground.”
Julian buried his face in his hands, his shoulders shaking with a mixture of rage and humiliation.
“Why, Mother?” Julian choked out, his fingers digging into his hair.
“Why destroy your own family in public?”
“Because,” Margaret said, standing up with absolute grace, “some families are cancer, Julian. And the only way to save the body is to cut the rot out completely.”
Before Julian could answer, the heavy front security doors rattled violently as local police officers demanded entry with a federal search warrant.
May you like
Margaret turned toward the private elevator, pressing the call button without looking back once at her ruined son.
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