Chapter 7 - The Final Confrontation
The conference room became so silent that the hum of the air conditioning unit sounded like a jet engine.
Victoria turned her head sharply, staring at her mother in complete, wide-eyed horror. "Mother...? What is he talking about?! What hospital?!"
"Shut up, Victoria!" Eleanor hissed, her mask of composure completely shattering. She glared at Lucas with pure, unadulterated venom. "You were supposed to marry my daughter, Lucas! The Vance and Montgomery estates were supposed to merge! Your father promised me forty percent of your family's shipping lines twenty years ago!"
"My father died ten years ago, Eleanor," Lucas said coldly. "And my wife was never yours to dispose of."
"She was a nobody!" Eleanor shrieked, slamming her hand against the glass table. "A dirt-poor schoolteacher from South Chicago with no family and no status! She was a stain on the social standing of the Vance name! I did you a favor by getting rid of her and her little street brats!"
SLAM!
Lucas didn't raise his voice, but he slammed a heavy iron folder onto the table, shattering the decorative glass centerpiece.
"You didn't just commit kidnapping, Eleanor," Lucas said, his hazel eyes burning with lethal intent. "Two years ago, you paid a mechanic to cut the brake lines on Clara’s car in Chicago, causing the crash that almost burned her alive. That is attempted triple murder."
The heavy oak doors of the conference room burst open.
Six federal agents in dark blue jackets marked FBI, accompanied by four uniformed Chicago police officers, stepped into the room.
Special Agent Vance stepped forward, pulling a pair of steel handcuffs from his belt. "Eleanor Montgomery, you are under arrest for attempted murder, high-level corporate fraud, illegal kidnapping, and human trafficking."
"No! Get your hands off me!" Eleanor screamed as the steel cuffs clicked tightly around her wrinkled wrists. "You can't touch me! I am an officer of the Montgomery Foundation! My lawyers will have you fired by noon!"
"Your lawyers are being arrested as accomplices in thirty minutes, Mrs. Montgomery," Agent Vance replied coldly, dragging the screaming elderly woman toward the door.
Victoria collapsed into a chair, covering her face in her hands, sobbing uncontrollably as her mother was led away down the hallway in front of forty corporate staff members.
May you like
Lucas stood up, adjusting his cuffs, looking down at Victoria with neither anger nor pity.
"Pack your things and leave this building, Victoria," Lucas said quietly. "If I ever see your face near my wife or my daughters again, I will buy every debt your family owes and ruin you before sunset."
