Chapter 7 - The Confession in the DarkArthur’s face turned the color of curdled milk, sweat pouring down his forehead as he clutched his broken finger. The pain was blinding, but the terror in Edward’s eyes was absolute poison.
"You... you found out," Arthur whimpered, shivering violently against the cold marble floor.
"Ten years of lies, Arthur," Edward said, his voice dropping into a register so cold it felt like liquid nitrogen. "Ten years of believing she abandoned me. Ten years of living a lie while you plotted behind my back, using my own empire to bleed the woman I loved. And last night, your hired animals finished the job."
"She was going to tell you!" Arthur sobbed, blood dripping from his nose where he had hit the wall. "If you found out about the forged buyout papers, you would have destroyed the company! You would have torn down everything we built! We had to keep her silent!"
"She was the mother of my children," Edward said.
In a flash of motion, Edward grabbed Arthur by the collar of his silk robe, hauling the grown man into the air with one hand as if he weighed nothing at all, and slammed him against the glass window overlooking the frozen city. The glass shuddered and groaned under the weight.
"Edward, please! We're partners! We're family!" Arthur screamed, pissing himself in stark terror as his feet dangled six hundred feet above the pavement.
"You are nothing," Edward whispered. "You are a parasite feeding on a corpse."
Before Edward could finish the sentence, the heavy mahogany doors of Arthur’s penthouse flew open. Marcus Vance stepped inside, flanked by four armed security operatives in tactical gear.
"Boss," Marcus said sharply, holding up a heavy leather-bound ledger and a thick stack of digital hard drives. "We found the safe in the study. Every transaction, every offshore account, and the medical records detailing the heavy metal poisoning. It's all here. The authorities have already been notified. Federal marshals are en route."
Edward slowly lowered Arthur back to the floor. The older man collapsed into a sobbing, trembling heap, entirely broken.
May you like
Edward wiped his hands with a handkerchief, looking down at Arthur with utter disgust.
"Take him away," Edward commanded. "And make sure he never sees daylight again."
