Chapter 10 - THE FINAL LEDGERThe evening paper sat on the mahogany desk in the newly restored Mercer estate—a sprawling, historic limestone manor overlooking the lake, bought back with the dividends of the very company Grant Holloway had thought he owned.
THE FALL OF HOLLOWAY: HOW A BILLION-DOLLAR EMPIRE CRUMBLED FROM WITHIN read the headline, accompanied by a sharp, dignified photo of Claire Mercer stepping out of the federal courthouse.
In a maximum-security federal penitentiary three hundred miles away, Grant Holloway sat in a concrete cell, staring at a blank wall, his name erased from the boards, the trusts, and the history books.
Claire sat at her desk, turning a heavy gold fountain pen between her fingers—the very same pen Grant had slid across the walnut table nine months ago.
She didn't laugh. She didn't smile with malice.
She simply opened a fresh, blank ledger, picked up the pen, and wrote her name at the top of the first page.
May you like
Claire Mercer.
Then, she began to write the future.
