Chapter 7 - The Predator Becomes the Prey"Avery? Thank God. Please, Avery, you have to listen to me."
The voice on the other end of the line was frantic, breathless, and stripped of every ounce of its former arrogance. It was Liam.
Avery walked slowly back out to the balcony, holding Leo securely against her shoulder. "I'm listening, Liam. You have exactly thirty seconds before I hang up and hand this phone over to Agent Vance."
"Avery, please," Liam sobbed, the sound pathetic and hollow echoing through the phone's speaker. "My lawyer says... my lawyer says they’re going to push for twenty years under the federal RICO statutes unless I cooperate fully. They want me to wear a wire against my mother. They want me to testify against my own family!"
"Your family chose to destroy mine," Avery replied calmly, watching a pair of seagulls dip low over the crashing waves below. "You helped them lay the trap, Liam. Now you get to see what’s at the bottom of it."
"I was trapped too!" Liam screamed, his voice cracking with hysterical panic. "Victoria controlled everything—the trusts, the board, the shares! I didn't have a choice!"
"We always have a choice, Liam," Avery said softly. "You chose the money. Every single day for three years, when you watched your mother humiliate me, when you watched me cry myself to sleep, when you signed those fraudulent documents... you made your choice. Now live with the consequences."
Before he could sob another plea, Avery pressed the red end call button, sliding the phone into her pocket as if it were nothing more than a piece of trash.
"Was that him?" Arthur asked, stepping out onto the balcony with a sheaf of legal papers in his hand.
"It was," Avery said, adjusting Leo against her hip. "He’s panicking. His lawyers are telling him he’s facing decades behind bars."
Arthur gave a cold, humorless nod. "Good. Let him rot in the system his mother built to crush innocent people." He held out the papers he was carrying. "Speaking of the system—these just came through the courier from the federal bankruptcy court. The restructuring of Sterling Financial is complete. As the sole controlling shareholder under the restitution order, you have full executive authority. The first board meeting is scheduled for tomorrow morning in Manhattan."
May you like
Avery looked at the thick stack of papers bearing her signature line—not Cross, not Sterling, but Avery Cross.
"Good," she said, her eyes narrowing as she looked past the iron gates toward the horizon where the Manhattan skyline shimmered in the morning smog. "Let's call a press conference."
