Chapter 10 - Freezing the Empire’s Vaults
By 8:00 PM, the grand ballroom of the Grand Imperial Hotel had cleared out, leaving behind only scattered champagne flutes, broken pearls, and the lingering stench of total corporate ruin.
While the society columns were already publishing emergency digital exclusives with headlines that would dominate the morning news cycle—“FALL OF THE SHIAO DYNASTY: PRESIDENT ARRESTED FOR $48M FRAUD AT MOTHER’S GALA”—I was already back in the executive boardroom on the sixty-eighth floor of our corporate tower.
The real work of purging an empire had begun.
Victoria Sterling and a team of eight forensic accountants sat around the long mahogany table, surrounded by stacks of legal binders, corporate ledger printouts, and encrypted hard drives.
“Status report,” I commanded, taking my seat at the head of the table, having changed back into a simple, elegant dark suit.
Victoria pulled up the master financial dashboard on the central LED wall.
“All sixteen domestic bank accounts associated with Shiaoza’s executive discretionary fund have been successfully locked down,” Victoria reported, tapping her pen against the glass table. “We managed to freeze twenty-two million dollars in liquid cash before Raymond Cross could execute an emergency transfer to an offshore trust in Belize.”
“What about the secondary shell companies?” I asked.
“The Department of Justice has issued preliminary freeze orders on Apex Procurement Logistics and Tong-Vane Holdings,” Victoria continued. “Furthermore, federal marshals have officially seized the St. Regis penthouse, the Miami oceanfront villa, and all six luxury vehicles. Secretary Jang’s pink Bentley Continental was repossessed from the salon parking lot two hours ago.”
A grim smile touched the corner of my lips. “And Jang Chin Tong herself?”
“Currently being held without bail at the County Detention Center,” Victoria replied with clinical precision. “She attempted to bribe the booking officers with a diamond Cartier bracelet she was concealing in her brassiere, which resulted in an additional felony charge of attempting to bribe a law enforcement official. Her private defense attorney dropped her case thirty minutes ago after discovering that her primary retainer account was frozen under the civil forfeiture order.”
I leaned back in the leather chair, looking at the glowing financial charts on the wall.
In less than twelve hours, the rot that had threatened to consume this billion-dollar conglomerate had been excised with surgical precision. But there was still one loose end that required absolute, permanent closure: the formal divorce settlement and the total liquidation of Shiaoza’s remaining shares.
Suddenly, the boardroom door opened.
Marcus Vance stepped in, holding a tablet computer. “Chairwoman Vane, the warden at the County Detention Center just reached out via the priority line. Shiaoza is demanding an emergency private consultation with you. The prison medical staff states that his blood pressure is dangerously high, and he is refusing to cooperate with public defenders until he speaks with you face-to-face.”
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I looked at Marcus for a long moment, the hum of the city lights reflecting against the glass windows behind me.
“Have the private transport prepared,” I said calmly, standing up from the table. “It’s time to deliver the final terms of surrender.”
