Chapter 6 - The Unraveling of Vance Mercer
With trembling fingers, Vance opened the manila folder. His eyes widened in instantaneous horror.
Lying inside were high-resolution photographs taken just eight hours earlier. The first showed Vance laughing with his arm around Chloe Adams at the country club valet stand. The second showed the time-stamped front door logs of his home address, recorded by Warren’s private security, showing me collapsed in a pool of blood. The third was a pristine copy of the certified mail receipt Vance had forged five weeks prior, alongside the legal correspondence regarding my concealed identity.
Color drained entirely from Vance’s face, leaving him a ghoushtly, pasty gray.
""M-Mr. Sterling... this... this is a private family misunderstanding,"" Vance stammered, his confident posture collapsing into a frantic hunch. ""I can explain everything. Natalie has been unstable—she’s been suffering from severe prenatal depression—""
""Silence,"" Warren roared, standing up with such sudden force that his heavy leather chair slammed against the back wall.
The entire boardroom seemed to shake. Vance shrank back, his knees physically trembling.
""You left my daughter bleeding on the floor to drink champagne with your mistress,"" Warren said, every word hitting Vance like a lead pipe. ""You forged federal documents. You attempted to steal four billion dollars of Sterling family trust assets. And you gambled with the lives of my daughter and my grandson.""
May you like
""D-Daughter?"" Vance whispered, his throat completely seizing up. His eyes darted around the room, desperate for an ally, but finding only stone-cold contempt. ""Natalie... is your daughter?""
""She is the sole surviving heir to this entire empire,"" Warren said, leaning across the table until he was inches from Vance’s pale, sweating face. ""And you, Vance Mercer, are nothing. You are terminated effective immediately. Your corporate accounts are liquidated. Your security clearances are revoked. And the United States Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Washington is waiting for you in the lobby with warrants for wire fraud, mail theft, and reckless endangerment.""
