Chapter 5
The air in the kitchen turned icy and thin as David clawed desperately at Arthur’s massive hand, his designer dress shoes slipping against the slick floorboards.
“Arthur! Stop! You’re killing him!” Margaret shrieked, rushing forward and striking Arthur’s arm with her manicured fists.
Arthur didn't even flinch. He casually turned his head toward the entrance. “Marcus, remove this woman from my presence before she hurts herself.”
The guard, Marcus, stepped into the kitchen with mechanical efficiency, grabbing Margaret by both forearms and maneuvering her backward into the formal dining room, forcing her down into a high-backed velvet chair.
“Let go of me! This is assault! You will hang for this, Arthur Vance!” Margaret screamed, her voice cracking into high-pitched hysteria as she struggled against the guard’s immovable grip.
Arthur released his grip on David’s throat. David dropped to his knees, coughing violently and clutching his bruised neck, his breath wheezing through his constricted windpipe.
“Listen to me very carefully, David,” Arthur said, looking down at the kneeling man with supreme disgust. “You have approximately ten minutes before the federal warrant goes live on the national wire. When it does, every asset associated with your name, your mother’s trust, and your firm will be frozen solid.”
David coughed, spitting a fleck of blood onto the floor. “You can’t freeze my mother’s trust... it’s protected by an irrevocable international charter...”
“It was protected,” Sarah corrected him from the stretcher, where the paramedics were now gently securing her splinted leg with velcro straps. “Until the authorities discovered that the trust was funded with laundered capital from the Sterling Holdings buyout. The money that disappeared from my trust fund three years ago, David. Did you think I wouldn't notice fifty million dollars missing from my inheritance?”
David looked up at her, his eyes wide and bloodshot. “I reinvested that money! I grew it! We were supposed to share it!”
“You used it to buy Margaret that villa in Aspen,” Sarah countered, her voice ice-cold. “You used it to pay off the mistress you kept in the downtown penthouse on 4th Street. And you used it to keep me trapped in this house, threatening to leave me with nothing if I ever tried to divorce you.”
David’s mouth opened and closed soundlessly. He looked like a fish suffocating on dry land.
Suddenly, David’s smartphone, resting on the granite counter near the sink, began to buzz violently. The screen lit up with the name MARK - CFO.
Arthur picked up the phone, tapped the speaker button, and held it out toward David. “Answer it, David. Let’s hear what your partners have to say.”
David swallowed hard, his voice trembling as he spoke toward the device. “Mark? What is it?”
A frantic, breathless voice blasted through the speaker. “David! Where the hell are you?! The FBI just raided our headquarters on 5th Avenue! They’re seizing every server in the building! The SEC just issued an immediate freeze on all trading accounts! They have our private ledgers, David! Who leaked the offshore books?!”
David’s eyes darted toward Sarah, the sheer weight of his impending ruin crashing down on him like an avalanche. “Mark... listen to me, do not say anything to them without our attorneys—”
“Our attorneys are already in custody, you idiot!” Mark screamed over the line. “They took Vance, Miller, and the entire compliance board ten minutes ago! They have a signed deposition from your wife! You’re finished, David! We’re all finished!”
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The call clicked dead, leaving only the dull dial tone humming through the sterile kitchen.
Arthur lowered the phone, tossing it casually onto the counter where it skittered across the polished surface. “Anything else you’d like to say about your legal standing, David?”
