Chapter 18 - THE COLLAPSE OF AEGIS
Katherine didn't open the folder at first. "What is this? Another useless emergency injunction?"
"Read page twelve," Marcus instructed coldly, stepping beside me. "It's the 1995 Master Founders Agreement for Vance International Holdings—the Luxembourg entity that owns Aegis Capital."
Katherine’s smile flickered. She reached out with manicured fingers and opened the folder. As her eyes scanned the authenticated signatures and the seventy-percent equity clause bearing Eleanor Vance’s name, the color drained entirely from her face.
"This... this is an illegal duplicate," Katherine stammered, her voice losing its crisp authority. "Eleanor surrendered her foreign holdings in 2005!"
"She surrendered her US holdings to protect the company from your liquidators," I corrected, leaning over the table until I was looking directly into my aunt's trembling eyes. "She kept her Luxembourg holdings in my name. You used my mother's offshore trust funds to buy Nathan's illegal debt notes. You committed cross-border wire fraud and embezzlement of trust assets."
One of the Financial Crimes detectives stepped forward, pulling a pair of handcuffs from his belt.
"Katherine Vance-Cross," the detective declared, "you are under arrest for grand larceny, securities fraud, and illegal conversion of trust assets. You have the right to remain silent."
The board members gasped as the steel cuffs clicked around Katherine’s wrists. Her high-society composure completely shattered. She looked at me, her face pale, her lips quivering with unadulterated rage.
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"You think you're clever, Emma?" Katherine hissed as the detectives escorted her toward the door. "Your mother was a snake! She destroyed this family!"
"My mother protected her daughter," I said quietly as the doors closed behind her. "Something you never understood."
