Chapter 3 - THE STERLING LEGACY"Grandpa?" Chloe gasped, pressing her hands against the glass of the apartment window as if she could see through the dark tint of the Maybach below. "You're... you're alive?"
"Of course I am, my sweet girl," the old man’s voice rasped through the speaker, devoid of warmth, sounding more like a machine processing data than a grandfather greeting the victim of a brutal assault. "Death is a very useful administrative tool when the federal government starts poking around your shipping ports. But let’s not dwell on family reunions."
Robert slammed his palm down on the coffee table, rattling the forensic equipment. "Where is Lewis, Arthur? And where is the trust file?"
"Lewis is on a flight to the Caymans, Bobby. He’s a pathetic, weak-willed boy, but he was very efficient at following instructions. Victoria and her little coven of hyenas? Disposable. They served their purpose. They broke the shell so we could get to the yolk."
"You orchestrated this?" I screamed, grabbing the phone from Robert’s hand. "You let that monster beat my daughter forty times on her wedding night?! You let them plan to throw her off a balcony?!"
A cold silence hung on the line for three agonizing seconds.
"Sarah, darling, power requires friction. I didn't tell Victoria to use her fists—that was her own vulgar, low-class impulsivity. I simply told her that Chloe needed to sign over the condo to prove her loyalty to the family business. If a girl won't defend her assets, how can she possibly manage thirty-two million dollars?"
"She's your flesh and blood!" I sobbed, tears finally breaking through the shock.
"And she is the sole remaining key to unlocking the Sterling-Hale offshore holdings," Arthur replied sharply, his tone hardening into jagged steel. "The divorce between you and Robert fractured our coalition. The courts froze the primary accounts. The only way to dissolve the injunction and transfer the principal without triggering an IRS audit is for Chloe to legally merge her primary trust with a corporate entity controlled by her husband—or, failing that, her legal guardian."
Robert snatched the phone back, his voice dropping into a lethal whisper. "If you touch her, Arthur, I will burn every single shell corporation you own to ash. I have the forensic backups. I have the flight manifests. I will hand your entire empire to the DOJ before the sun comes up."
A low chuckle came through the speaker.
"Go ahead, Bobby. Try it. But remember—if you destroy my network, the thirty-two million vanishes into algorithmic bankruptcy. Chloe gets nothing. And as for Lewis’s private jet?"
Arthur paused, a sickeningly sweet note entering his tone.
May you like
"It’s already crossed international airspace. The signature is registered. By sunrise, the transfer will be complete. You’ve already lost."
The line went dead.
