Chapter 10 - The Queen's GambitSix months later, the front page of the Boston Globe featured a sprawling financial profile with the headline:
“REIGN OF THE VANGUARD: How Katherine Hayes Rebuilt an Empire and Redefined Corporate Power in New England.”
The accompanying photograph showed me standing on the steps of Vanguard Assets in a sharp, slate-gray trench coat, looking forward with absolute, unyielding confidence.
Preston Hayes was currently three months into a twelve-year federal prison sentence at a medium-security correctional facility in western Massachusetts, spending his days working in the prison laundry room—far away from boardroom tables, Cartier bracelets, and silk pillows.
Helena Vance’s legal team had exhausted their final appeals, and her federal trial was scheduled to conclude with a guaranteed conviction that would ensure she spent the rest of her life behind bars.
As for Brielle Madden, local gossip columns reported she was working as a hostess at a mid-tier restaurant in Los Angeles, her ambitions of high-society luxury reduced to paying off mounting legal debts from her brief association with the disgraced CEO.
I sat in my private office on the forty-fifth floor, looking out over the bustling harbor. The city was alive, vibrant, and moving forward under new leadership—a leadership built not on deceit, manipulation, or stolen privilege, but on absolute control, unyielding strength, and absolute justice.
The door chimed softly, and Naomi walked in holding a chilled bottle of vintage champagne and two crystal flutes.
"To Vanguard Assets," Naomi toasted, popping the cork with a satisfying celebratory sound that echoed through the luxurious office. "And to never trusting a man with cheap cufflinks."
May you like
I laughed, clinking my flute against hers as the sunlight caught the facets of the crystal, shining brilliantly across the room.
"To the next chapter," I said.
