Chapter 3 - THE HIGH-STAKES TRAP
Standing on the sidewalk outside the jewelry store, the cold Manhattan air stung the fresh bruise on my face. A black Lincoln Town Car pulled up to the curb.
I opened the rear door and slid inside.
In the backseat sat Marcus Vance—my mother's longtime personal attorney and a man who was like an uncle to me. He looked at my swollen cheek and the faint trace of blood on my coat, his sharp gray eyes narrowing into a look of profound, dangerous anger.
"He struck you," Marcus said, his voice dropping an octave.
"Twice," I replied, pulling a small silver flash drive from my pocket and handing it to him. "The store’s cloud backup server uploads raw video footage every fifteen minutes. I used my founder's access code to download the primary feed before I walked out the door."
Marcus took the drive, plugging it into his tablet. As the video played—showing Nathan's strike and my fall onto the marble—Marcus let out a long, slow breath.
"In the state of New York, a felony assault charge committed during an ongoing corporate dispute allows us to file an emergency injunction," Marcus said, tapping the screen. "We can freeze all of Nathan’s personal accounts, freeze the company's trading desk, and void any pending equity transfers prior to a judicial audit."
"What about Friday?" I asked.
"If the court freezes the company assets before Friday, the fraudulent transfer document Celeste notarized becomes legally void," Marcus explained. "Your mother's original trust terms will trigger automatically on your birthday. You will take fifty-one percent control of the empire."
I leaned my head back against the leather seat, closing my eyes. "They didn't just want a divorce, Marcus. They wanted to strip me of everything my mother built before I even realized what was happening."
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"They were desperate, Emma," Marcus said quietly. "Nathan has taken out forty million dollars in high-interest private loans against the company's diamond inventory to fund his overseas expansion. If he doesn't secure your shares by Friday to clear those debts, his creditors will foreclose on the entire business."
I opened my eyes, looking out at the flashing neon lights of the city. "Then we make sure he defaults."
