Chapter 10
Marcus slumped back into his leather chair, the veneer of corporate invulnerability completely stripped away. He rubbed his collarbone where Julian’s grip had left a faint red mark through his silk tie, his breathing shallow and erratic. "I didn't know," Marcus stammered, his hands trembling as he reached for a glass of water on the table. "Julian, I swear to God, I had no idea about the girl. Or the mother. To me, it was just land acquisition. The algorithms flagged that block as low-occupancy, high-value turnaround. My job was to clear the path for the new tech hub. I didn't look at individual tenants; nobody at my level looks at individual tenants!" Julian stood over him, his hands resting flat on the glass table, his posture rigid and unrelenting. "Your job was to execute my vision, Marcus. And your vision was built on cruelty and negligence. You optimized human misery into a line item."
"What do you want?" Marcus whispered, his eyes darting frantically toward Matteo by the door before returning to Julian. "You want me to resign? You want my stock options? We can bury this quietly. File a restructuring memo, blame market shifts, and push the project back six months." Julian let out a cold, humorless laugh that echoed off the glass walls. "Resign? Oh, you're going to resign, Marcus. But you're also going to do something else. You're going to hand over every personal ledger, every off-the-books communication, and every record of kickbacks you took from the municipal contractors who enforced those illegal evictions." Marcus paled to the color of ash. "You can't do that. That would implicate the entire executive board. That would bring federal investigators down on Sterling Global like a ton of bricks. You'd destroy the company you spent your entire life building!"
"Then let it burn," Julian said simply, his voice devoid of any hesitation. "An empire built on blood and suffering isn't worth saving." He straightened up, adjusting his cuffs with chilling precision, and turned his back on his COO. "Matteo, escort Mr. Vance to his office to pack his personal belongings. If he attempts to access any digital files or contact board members before his formal resignation is processed at 9:00 AM, make sure he doesn't leave the building." Matteo stepped forward, his expression carved from stone, and gestured sharply toward the door. "Right this way, Marcus," Matteo said, his voice like sliding steel. As Marcus was led out of the boardroom in a state of utter shock, Julian walked back to the panoramic windows. The first faint streaks of pale pink dawn were beginning to break over the Manhattan skyline, illuminating a new day that would change his life forever.
