Chapter 5 - The Fall of the House of Cross
By Friday morning, news of the scandal dominated every financial headline in the country:
"APEX GLOBAL CEO ARRESTED AT GALA FOR FORGERY AND FRAUD." "LEGENDARY VANCE LAW FIRM EMBARKS ON MASSIVE FORENSIC PURGE OF OFFSHORE FRAUD."
With Adrian locked in a federal holding cell unable to post the five-million-dollar bail set by the judge, Vanessa ran to her father, Richard Cross, begging him to use his legal network to save her estate claim.
What she didn't know was that my father had already turned his sights on the Cross syndicate.
I sat in the high-rise conference room of Vance & Sterling on Wall Street. Through the glass walls, the Manhattan skyline glistened in the morning sun. I wore a tailored black business suit, sitting at the head of the table beside my parents.
Across from us sat Richard Cross—a harsh, red-faced man in his sixties—and his trembling daughter, Vanessa.
"This is extortion, Arthur!" Richard Cross slammed his fist onto the glass table. "My daughter held a valid title deed! She was unaware of any forgery committed by Miller!"
"Is that so, Mr. Cross?" my mother asked smoothly, sliding an iPad across the table.
On the screen played crystal-clear, high-definition video footage recorded by the security camera above my former front door—the very camera Vanessa had failed to disable.
In the video, Vanessa could be heard distinctly laughing on the phone with her father while my nursery furniture was tossed into the rain: "Dad, it worked. The stupid girl left with her babies. The deed is recorded. Adrian signed her name perfectly. The house is ours."
Richard Cross went deathly silent. Vanessa pulled her hands back from the table as if burned.
"That video," I said, leaning forward, "constitutes direct evidence of criminal conspiracy to commit grand larceny. In New York, that carries a mandatory minimum sentence of seven years."
"What do you want, Victoria?" Richard Cross asked, his arrogant demeanor completely collapsing into desperate bargaining. "Name your price. I'll pay off Adrian’s debt myself. Just keep Vanessa out of prison."
"Your money is dirty, Mr. Cross," I said, my voice smooth and ice-cold. "I don't want your cash. I want your complete, unconditional surrender of every claim, lien, and asset connected to Apex Global, along with a full public confession of your predatory lending practices."
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"And if I refuse?"
My father leaned over the table, his blue eyes flashing like cold steel. "Then by noon today, the Securities and Exchange Commission will receive twenty gigabytes of encrypted files regarding your offshore accounts in the Cayman Islands. You won't just lose your business, Richard—you'll be sharing a cell block with your former son-in-law candidate."
