Chapter 8 - The Shadow Heir
Two weeks before Evan’s criminal trial, a massive scandal shattered what was left of Margaret Rowan’s reputation.
Claire’s legal team, executing a court-ordered deep audit of the old Rowan family trusts, uncovered a stunning secret hidden in the company’s archives from thirty years ago.
Margaret Rowan’s late husband—Evan’s father, Richard Rowan—had not died of natural causes as the public had been told. He had died bankrupt after gambling away the original Rowan firm’s assets. Desperate to maintain her elite status, Margaret had forged Richard’s will and secretly used her young daughter-in-law’s late father (Harrison Vance Sterling) to bail out the firm, using a fake stock issuance scheme.
In reality, the entire "Rowan Empire" had been funded 100% by Claire’s family money from day one! Margaret had spent thirty years living off the wealth of the very family she looked down upon!
When the news was published in the Austin American-Statesman, the public outrage was overwhelming.
Margaret, unable to face the public humiliation, fled her rented apartment and attempted to confront Claire at the Sterling Meridian headquarters.
She stormed into the lobby, her hair wild, her clothes rumpled, screaming like a madwoman.
"Claire Sterling! Come down here! You stole my life! You stole my family’s legacy!"
Security guards quickly restrained the hysterical woman in the center of the marble lobby—the exact same marble where Claire had once stood in silence.
Claire descended the grand staircase slowly, accompanied by two police officers.
Margaret thrashing in the guards' grip, spittle flying from her lips. "You ungrateful brat! My son gave you twelve years of his life! I gave you a home! And you ruined us!"
Claire stopped three feet away from Margaret, looking down at the woman who had once treated her like an inferior outsider.
"You gave me nothing, Margaret," Claire said coldly. "You lived in my father's house. You drove cars bought with my father's trust. And you offered me an $80 million check drawn on an account that belonged to my company."
Claire pulled a folded document from her pocket and held it out.
"What's that?!" Margaret spat.
"It's an eviction notice for your apartment," Claire said smoothly. "It turns out the building owner is a subsidiary of Sterling Meridian. And as of today, your lease is terminated for non-payment."
Margaret’s eyes went wide with terror. "You... you can't throw an old woman into the street!"
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"Take it, disappear, and never come back," Claire quoted, her voice dripping with lethal elegance, throwing Margaret’s exact words from three weeks ago right back into her face. "The Sterling family finally has its company back."
Margaret gasped, her chest heaving, before collapsing into the guards' arms, completely broken.
