Chapter 7
Back at the Vance Corporation headquarters, the evening shadows stretched long and deep across Clara’s office. She sat behind her desk, staring at the glowing monitor displaying real-time financial tracking across all major subsidiaries. Despite the successful board vote and Julian’s arrest, an unsettling intuition kept her on edge. The audit was thorough, yet something didn't add up. Julian’s reckless spending habits over the past three years far exceeded the twelve million dollars uncovered in the initial forensic report. There was a missing ledger—a shadow account that funded his secret real estate acquisitions in Vancouver and London.
The soft chime of her secure terminal interrupted her concentration. A encrypted message from an anonymous source flashed on the screen: “Check the shipping registry under the name 'Aegis Logistics' circa 2012. Ask your father about Uncle Viktor.”
Clara frowned, leaning closer to the monitor. Viktor Vance. The name was practically taboo in the executive suite. Twenty years ago, Viktor had been the heir apparent until a massive scandal involving stolen patent designs and offshore accounts rocked the company. Arthur had personally signed the legal documents banishing his brother from the family and buying out his shares at a steep discount. To Clara’s knowledge, Viktor hadn't set foot in the United States since the turn of the century.
She picked up her desk phone and dialed her father’s private line. It rang twice before Arthur answered, his voice sounding uncharacteristically tired.
“Dad, we need to talk,” Clara said without preamble. “I just received an encrypted tip regarding Julian’s hidden assets routed through Aegis Logistics. The name Viktor Vance was attached to the file.”
A heavy, suffocating silence hung on the line for several seconds. When Arthur finally spoke, his voice was strained, carrying the weight of decades-old trauma. “Where did you get that name, Clara?”
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“An anonymous source,” she replied firmly. “Dad, is Viktor back in the country? If Julian is coordinating with him behind bars, our entire corporate restructuring is compromised. Viktor was legally cut out, but if he still holds dormant legal claims from the 2012 settlement—”
“Viktor isn't just back in the country,” Arthur interrupted, cutting her off with a grim finality. “He’s been waiting twenty years for a weakness in this family to exploit. Julian was never acting alone. He was a pawn in Viktor’s larger game to dismantle the Vance Corporation from the inside out.”
