Chapter 8
The realization that her father’s criminal desperation had brought a professional auditor straight to her wedding altar hit Victoria like a physical blow. She staggered backward, her hand catching the edge of the mahogany desk to steady herself. The diamonds around her neck felt heavy, suffocatingly tight, like a shackle rather than an ornament.
“Dad… is it true?” Victoria asked, her arrogant veneer completely stripped away, leaving behind the frightened voice of a spoiled child who had just discovered her entire world was built on sand. “Did you steal from the unions to pay for this wedding?”
Arthur couldn’t meet her eyes. He slumped down into the executive leather chair, burying his face in his trembling hands. The silence was all the confirmation Victoria needed.
Elena walked over to the desk, picking up the golden medallion she had retrieved earlier and slipping it back into her pocket with a metallic clink. She looked down at the ruined patriarch of the Vane empire with neither pity nor malice; she simply viewed them as mathematical errors that needed to be corrected on a balance sheet.
“The guests downstairs are still drinking your champagne, Arthur,” Elena said, her tone conversational. “They’re eating your imported caviar and gossiping about the bride’s dress. They have no idea that by midnight, the bank accounts freezing their credit cards will lock them out of their own limousines.”
“Please,” Victoria whispered, her voice breaking as tears finally welled in her eyes—not the grand, theatrical tears of an actress, but the hot, desperate tears of total defeat. “Please, Elena. Take the hotel. Take the accounts. Just… let us leave quietly. Don’t ruin our name in the press.”
Elena paused at the door, her hand resting on the brass handle. She turned her head slightly, looking back at the weeping bride.
May you like
“Your name was ruined the moment your father decided human lives were acceptable collateral for a ballroom reception,” Elena replied quietly. “The press is already downstairs, Victoria. I invited them.”
Before either of them could respond, Elena pulled the door open and stepped out into the hallway, leaving the father and daughter alone in the ruins of their stolen empire.
