Chapter 7 - The Fiancée’s True Colors
Chloe Van Der Bilt had heard enough.
Her carefully curated fantasy of marrying into a wealthy, prestigious logistics empire was disintegrating before her very eyes, replaced by the grim reality of bankruptcy, fraud, and four legitimate heirs who held all the cards.
She stood up so violently that her dining chair screeched against the hardwood floor.
"Enough of this circus!" Chloe shrieked, pointing a manicured, diamond-clad finger directly at my face. "I don't care about your algorithms, and I don't care about your sob story from eight years ago! You think you can walk in here with these four little bastards and take what belongs to me?!"
"Chloe, sit down!" Patricia pleaded from the other end of the table, terrified of what more might be revealed in front of her social circle.
"No, Patricia, I will not sit down!" Chloe snapped, her high-society mask slipping off entirely to reveal a vicious, entitled core. "Look at her! She’s nothing but an opportunistic gold-digger who got lucky! My father is Richard Van Der Bilt! We control thirty percent of the freight corridors in the Midwest! We can crush you, Kesha! We can tie you up in federal court until every penny of your mentor’s money is gone!"
She turned her venomous gaze onto my children.
"And as for these four... don't think for a second you're going to see a single dime of the Reynolds estate! When Marcus and I are married, I will make sure every trust fund, every property, and every bank account is locked under my name! You four will get nothing!"
Sophia and Olivia didn't flinch. Noah simply took another sip of his water, while Ethan watched Chloe with a look of mild amusement that drove her even madder.
"Are you finished, Chloe?" I asked, my voice entirely unfazed.
"No, I'm not finished!" Chloe yelled. "You think you're so powerful because you landed in a helicopter? You're a joke! A divorced single mother who had to beg an old billionaire for a job!"
I slowly dabbed the corners of my mouth with my linen napkin, set it down, and leaned back in my chair.
"Dana," I called out toward the foyer.
The double doors opened, and Dana walked into the dining room carrying a slim leather portfolio. She handed it to me, gave Chloe a look of profound pity, and stepped back.
"Chloe," I said, opening the portfolio. "You speak very highly of your father, Richard Van Der Bilt. A formidable man. But perhaps you should have spoken to him before coming to Boulder this weekend."
I pulled out a document stamped with the official seal of the Federal Trade Commission and slid it down the long table toward Chloe.
"What is this?" Chloe demanded, refusing to touch the paper.
"That is the official notification of acquisition," I answered smoothly. "Last Friday at 4:00 p.m., Vance-Reynolds Global completed the purchase of sixty-two percent of Van Der Bilt Shipping's outstanding voting shares. Your father didn't tell you? He was facing a catastrophic liquidity crisis of his own due to bad real estate investments in Miami. He sold his controlling stake to my holding firm to avoid public bankruptcy."
Chloe's eyes bulged. She snatched the document off the table, her hands trembling as her eyes scanned the signatures. At the bottom of the page, bold and clear, was her father’s signature alongside my own.
"No..." Chloe whispered, the color draining completely from her lips. "This... this can't be real. My father wouldn't..."
"Your father works for me now, Chloe," I said softly, delivering the final, crushing blow. "Which means the shipping corridors you just threatened to crush me with? They belong to me. The trust fund you promised to hoard? Funded by my company’s dividends. And that engagement ring on your finger?"
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I looked at Marcus with a cold, triumphant smile.
"Marcus purchased that ring using a corporate credit line from Reynolds Logistics—a credit line that was financed by Vance-Reynolds Global. Technically speaking, Chloe... Marcus bought your engagement ring with my money."
