Chapter 3: The Broken Legacy
Dr. Sterling stood up slowly, drawing himself to his full, imposing height. He turned his gaze toward Julian, his eyes cutting through the young billionaire like a scalpel. Slowly, deliberately, the doctor reached into his pocket and pulled out a gold-embossed fountain pen, tapping it against his clipboard with a chilling, rhythmic calmness.
"Your ex-wife?" Dr. Sterling repeated, his voice dropping into a register that made Julian's chest tighten with a sudden, suffocating dread. "You think this is a financial transaction, Mr. Vance? You think your tiny real estate trust carries weight in a building where I dictate who lives and dies?"
Victoria stepped forward, her green silk rustling, her voice shrill with indignation. "Do you know who my father is, Doctor? He sits on the municipal board! We can have your administrative license reviewed by morning if you continue to insult us!"
"Your father’s foundation holds a three percent stake in our secondary research wing, Miss Carrington," Dr. Sterling stated flatly. "And as of sixty seconds ago, I have instructed our legal department to buy out that stake and ban your family from the donor registry. You are irrelevant here."
Julian’s face began to lose its color. "Doctor, this is insane. Why are you risking your reputation for a helpless nobody?"
"Your... granddaughter?" Julian stammered, his face draining of all color in an instant as the doctor's words finally registered in his brain.
"She is not a nobody, you pathetic little man," Dr. Sterling whispered, a deep, dramatic bass drop of pure fury echoing through his tone. "Sarah is my biological daughter from my first marriage. The daughter I have spent the last five years quietly setting up a multi-million-dollar trust fund for. And the child she is currently carrying—the child you just tried to throw out into the street—is my granddaughter."
The silence that followed was heavy and absolute. Julian’s hands began to shake violently inside his suit pockets. The pristine illusion of his perfect, high-society ascension was pulverized in a single second. He had abandoned his wife because he thought she had no resources, completely oblivious to the fact that she was the sole heiress to the largest medical empire on the East Coast.
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"Dad..." Sarah gasped, clutching her stomach again as a sharp pain flared.
"Get her to Suite A immediately!" Dr. Sterling roared to the medical staff who had just rushed into the hall. "Full obstetrics team, prime anesthesia, now!"
