Chapter 4 - THE QUEEN'S ENTRANCEAdrian stared at me as if I were a phantom risen from the grave. His mouth opened and closed soundlessly, like a fish gasping for air on a dry dock.
"E-Elena?" he whispered, his voice cracking pathetically. "What... what are you doing here? How did you get on this flight?"
"I didn't need to take your flight, Adrian," I replied smoothly, walking over to the table and setting my folio down with a crisp, echoing thud. I pulled out a sleek titanium pen and clicked it once. "Private jets and direct federal liaison clearances have their perks when you're the primary victim and financial benefactor of the corporation you're currently dismantling."
Julian scrambled out of his chair, pointing an accusing finger at Adrian. "Officer, arrest him! It was all his idea! He promised me a cut if I helped him stage the corporate separation! I'm just an employee!"
"An employee who willingly signed off on interstate wire fraud and identity theft," Marcus Thorne noted, stepping into the room right behind me with a stack of verified legal affidavits. "Your complicity is fully documented, Mr. Vance. You'll both be bunking together in the federal holding facility downtown."
Adrian looked at me, his eyes welling with desperate, manipulative tears—the exact same performance he used to give whenever his business ventures crashed. He dropped to his knees, lunging forward to grab the hem of my pantsuit.
"Elena, please!" he sobbed, putting on a masterclass of simulated agony. "It was a mistake! A momentary lapse in judgment! These men... they pressured me! They told me if I didn't play along, I'd lose everything! We're husband and wife! Think of our history, think of the home we built together!"
I looked down at him. The man who had whispered to his lover about throwing me out onto the street was now grovelling at my feet.
May you like
Slowly, deliberately, I pulled my fabric away from his grasping fingers.
"The home we built together?" I asked softly, my voice cutting through the sterile room like a diamond glass-cutter. "Adrian, that house was built with money my father left me. Every beam, every brick, every memory belongs to my family. You didn't build anything. You were just a parasite feeding on my foundation."
