Chapter 16 - The Sister's Counterattack
The tension in the boardroom was thick enough to cut with a scalpel.
Elena slammed a thick stack of legal documents onto the mahogany table right in front of me. The papers slid across the polished surface, scattering copies of probate filings, psychiatric evaluations, and corporate bylaws.
"My legal team has filed an emergency injunction," Elena announced, her voice ringing with triumphant malice. "We have petitioned the state supreme court to declare Marcus mentally incompetent to manage his estate, citing 'undue influence by an opportunistic third party'—that's you, Claudia. Under our family trust covenants, a sudden marriage to a civilian with zero corporate lineage triggers an automatic freeze on all asset transfers."
Julian started to stand up from his chair, his fists clenched, but Marcus raised a single hand, motioning for him to remain calm.
Marcus didn't raise his voice. He didn't blink. He simply stood up from his chair, walked slowly around the table until he was standing shoulder-to-shoulder with me, and looked down at his sister with absolute contempt.
"Elena," Marcus said smoothly, "you always were remarkably short-sighted. You assumed that because I spent a night in a park without my wallet, I had lost my mind. And you assumed that because Claudia spent thirty years in a hospital, she didn't know how to read a balance sheet."
Elena scoffed. "Spare me the melodrama. Your little nurse friend doesn't even know what a hostile takeover looks like."
I reached down, picked up the top document of the injunction, and calmly flipped to page four, highlighting a specific paragraph with my gold fountain pen.
"Actually, Elena," I said, my voice perfectly steady, clinical, and eerily calm. "I spent the last three weeks reviewing the European division's Q3 compliance logs. It turns out that while you were busy trying to declare Marcus incompetent, you were quietly funneling four million dollars of subsidiary capital into a shell corporation registered in Liechtenstein under your maiden name."
Elena’s face lost every trace of color in a fraction of a second. The triumphant smirk vanished from her lips, replaced by a sudden, frantic panic.
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"That... that's a lie," she stammered, her attorneys instantly leaning over her shoulder to inspect the papers. "You fabricated those documents—"
"Federal marshals are currently auditing your Swiss bank accounts as we speak," Marcus finished quietly. "You have two hours to resign from the board voluntarily, or your next stop won't be a courtroom. It'll be a holding cell."
