Chapter 7 - The Desperate Petition
Two weeks later, the winter chill settled over Manhattan, bringing heavy snow flurries across the city streets.
Richard Cole stood outside the gated entrance of Julian Sterling’s private brownstone in Greenwich Village, his coat dusted with snow.
He had waited in the freezing cold for three hours before Julian’s private security detail finally opened the iron side gate.
Richard was led into a formal library lined with floor-to-ceiling books, where Julian sat behind a dark oak desk reviewing shipping manifests.
"Mr. Sterling, thank you for granting me five minutes," Richard said, his voice stripped of all former arrogance.
"Sit, Mr. Cole," Julian said without looking up from his papers. "Naomi is upstairs with her dressmaker, so you will speak quietly."
Richard sank into a leather armchair, wringing his hands together in nervous agitation.
"Our logistics permits have been suspended by the harbor authority. I know you have the power to lift the suspension, Julian. If our ships don't unload by Friday, Cole Imports is finished."
Julian set his fountain pen down with deliberate precision, leaning back to study the broken man across from him.
"When Naomi’s mother was dying of leukemia, you canceled her supplemental health insurance to buy Beatrice a summer villa in the Hamptons."
Richard went gray, his lips trembling as his darkest past was laid bare in broad daylight.
"That was twenty years ago, Julian! Business was difficult—"
"And when Naomi was accepted into Columbia University with partial tuition honors, you refused to cosign her student loan because Vanessa wanted a luxury sports car for her sixteenth birthday," Julian continued, his voice icy and unforgiving.
"You did not treat her as a daughter. You treated her as an inconvenient reminder of a life you wanted to forget."
"I made terrible mistakes, I admit it!" Richard pleaded, leaning across the desk with tears in his bloodshot eyes.
"Please, talk to Naomi. Ask her to speak for me. She was always a forgiving child."
Julian stood up, towering over Richard with an intimidating presence that made the older man shrink back.
"Naomi is no longer your scapegoat, Richard. She is a Sterling now. If you want your ships unloaded, you will sign over your remaining shares of Helen’s textile trust back to Naomi unconditionally."
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Richard stared in utter horror, realizing that the only way to save his company was to surrender the stolen legacy he had hoarded for two decades.
Without a word, Richard picked up the pen with trembling fingers and signed his name across the transfer deed.
