Chapter 6 - The Fall of the Prince
On Monday morning, the news of the Vance Logistics collapse hit the regional business papers like an earthquake.
GREENWICH FREIGHT TYCOON OUSTED AMID FEDERAL FRAUD PROBE. VANCE HERITAGE TRUST ASSUMES CONTROL OF MULTI-MILLION DOLLAR ASSETS.
Daniel spent his Monday morning not at the head of the boardroom table, but in a small, windowless interrogation room at the state police barracks. Frank Vance had ensured that the local prosecutor received the unedited hall footage of Daniel’s assault on me, alongside the forged corporate invoices.
I walked into the precinct at noon, flanked by Evelyn and two security guards from the private firm we had hired to secure the Riverdale estate.
When I passed through the glass doors of the holding area, I saw Daniel sitting behind a scratched plastic table. He wore the same wrinkled shirt he had been wearing on Saturday night. His hair was messy, his eyes bloodshot, his expensive watch gone—confiscated during intake.
When he saw me through the glass, he scrambled to his feet, slamming his palms against the partition.
"Nora!" he yelled, his voice muffled by the thick glass. "Nora, please! You have to tell them it was a mistake! Tell them we had an argument! Tell them I didn't mean to touch you!"
I picked up the black plastic receiver on the wall and held it to my ear.
Daniel frantically grabbed his receiver on the other side. "Nora, listen to me! My mother is having a nervous breakdown at the hotel! The bank froze her accounts! We don't even have money to pay the retainer for a defense lawyer! You can't do this to us after six years of marriage!"
"Six years, Daniel," I said calmly through the phone. "Six years of you telling me I was nothing without your family. Six years of watching your mother treat me like a servant while you stood by and laughed."
"I was drunk, Nora!" he pleaded, tears finally welling in his bloodshot eyes. "I was drunk and stupid! I'll go to therapy! I'll sign whatever postnup you want! Just drop the assault charge and let me back into the company accounts so I can fix the payroll!"
"You're not fixing anything, Daniel," I replied, my voice dropping into an icy, unyielding tone. "The board met at nine o'clock this morning. As majority trustee, I officially voted to liquidate Vance Logistics' freight assets to pay off the worker pensions you embezzled."
Daniel’s face drained of all color. "You... you liquidated the company?"
"I saved the workers' futures," I corrected him. "And as for the Riverdale mansion? It’s been listed for sale. The proceeds will go directly into a charitable trust Arthur established for victims of domestic abuse."
"You're destroying my family!" Daniel screamed, his fist striking the glass. "My father built that company!"
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"Your father built that company to protect people," I said, looking at him with absolute detachment. "And his final act was giving me the key to protect myself from you."
I hung up the receiver, turned my back on his screaming face, and walked out into the sunlight.
