Chapter 4 - The Shattered Glass
The silence inside the hall cracked like winter ice. Julian looked down at Emma, whose small hands gripped his tailored trousers with desperate, white-knuckled strength. The child was trembling, hot tears soaking through his fabric. He knelt down instinctively, his broad hands resting on her frail shoulders. Up close, the resemblance was undeniable—the cleft in her chin, the line of her brow.
“Elena, wait,” Julian called out, but his wife paused on the fourth stair only to turn her back toward him.
“Do not speak to me,” Elena said, her voice shaking with controlled venom. “My father gave your family seventy million dollars to liquidate your father’s debt. He bought you out of bankruptcy under the condition of total transparency. If the board discovers you have an illegitimate heir born out of wedlock—with a woman Vance paid to silence—the merger collapses by tomorrow noon.”
Arthur cleared his throat delicately. “Mrs. Sterling is correct, Julian. The covenant clauses in the merger agreement state clearly that any material breach of moral conduct or undisclosed familial claims grants the Vance-Hale consortium full control of your board seat.”
Julian lifted Emma into his arms. She was startlingly light, weighing no more than an armful of dry kindling. She buried her face into the crook of his neck, her breath hitching in damp sobs. His mind spun back to the small attic room where Clara used to paint by candlelight, promising him that no amount of Sterling money could ever replace simple honesty.
“You set this up, Arthur,” Julian snarled, his gaze locking onto the attorney. “You hid Clara away in Blackwood Bay, intercepted her letters, and when she got sick, you waited for her to die so you could sweep the board.”
Arthur’s smile was faint, entirely devoid of warmth. “I protect the firm. A sick painter without resources cannot fight a global asset management firm. However, the child was an unexpected variable. Hand her over, Julian. Before this destroys what little you have left.”
May you like
Julian took two steps back into the hallway, pulling Emma tighter against his chest. “Call my driver,” Julian said to Marta.
“Sir,” Arthur warned, gesturing slightly to the two guards behind him. “If you step off this property with that minor without legal clearance, I will file an immediate report of child endangerment and parental unfitness.”
