CHAPTER 3
Richard’s hands flew to the folder, his eyes frantically scanning the highlighted routing numbers, forged signatures, and flagged offshore accounts.
With every line he read, the remaining color drained from his face until he looked like a hollow, walking ghost in his outdated designer suit.
"How... how did you get these?" Richard stammered, dropping into a leather chair as his legs completely gave out beneath his heavy frame. "These are private internal ledgers!"
"Aegis Ledger owns the proprietary AI infrastructure that monitors seventy percent of East Coast logistics transactions, Dad," I explained, leaning against my desk. "Your chief financial officer used our software to process your cooked books six months ago."
Eleanor stumbled forward, dropping her crocodile handbag onto the carpet as tears smeared her heavy eye makeup.
"Emma, darling... please!" Eleanor begged, her voice high-pitched and hysterical as she reached out her manicured hands toward me. "We are family! Your father was just trying to keep the company afloat! He did it for us!"
"He chucked a hundred-dollar bill onto wet concrete and locked me out in the rain, Eleanor," I said, my voice dropping into an icy, unyielding register. "You stood behind him and watched."
"I slept on metal chairs in the campus library while you spent twenty thousand dollars on seasonal wardrobe updates in Soho," I added, looking her dead in the eye.
Chloe stepped out from behind Eleanor, her eyes red, swollen, and filled with deep, agonizing guilt as she looked up at me.
"Emma... I tried to find you," Chloe sobbed softly, wiping her cheeks with a crumpled tissue. "They hid your letters... Dad burned the box of your high school awards in the backyard furnace."
A cold, dark fury flickered in my chest, but I kept my breathing steady and my face completely unreadable.
"I know, Chloe," I said gently, offering my younger sister the only soft look in the room. "I saw the security camera footage from the house two years ago."
Richard looked up from the dossier, his eyes wild with terror as he realized the full extent of his total, inescapable defeat.
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"What do you want, Emma?" Richard whimpered, his arrogant pride completely vaporized. "What do you want from me?"
"I want Mercer Freight Systems," I stated flatly. "Every stock share, every real estate deed, and every logistics contract, transferred to Aegis Ledger for exactly one dollar."
