Chapter 11 - The Gala of Reckoning (Part 1)
Panic erupted in the boardroom.
Daniel tried to dash toward the emergency exit doors, but Harrison moved with lightning speed, pinning him against the wall and snapping the steel cuffs onto his wrists.
"Julian! Please!" Daniel screamed, his face pressed against the glass. "It was Vanessa! She pushed me! She threatened to expose my trading debts if I didn't help her cut the lines!"
"You chose your price, Daniel," I said, walking past him without a single glance of remorse. "Now you pay it."
Uncle Martin sat paralyzed in his seat as federal agents slapped cuffs around his hands, escorting him past the stunned gaze of the board members who had almost voted in his favor moments prior.
Vanessa was hauled to her feet by two female officers. Her shimmering silver outfit now looked pathetically out of place against the harsh fluorescent lights of corporate accountability.
"Julian!" she wept hysterically, tears smearing her mascara down her pale cheeks. "I loved you! I was just hurt! I was scared of spending my life with someone who couldn't protect me! Please, don't do this to me!"
I stood in front of her, looking down into her eyes—the same eyes that had looked at me with cruel disgust in my own ballroom two nights ago.
"You told me that night that I deserved to be left with nothing," I said softly, my voice completely devoid of hatred, leaving only absolute cold finality. "Respect costs nothing, Vanessa. But cruelty... cruelty costs everything you have."
"Take them away," the Chief of Police ordered.
As the conspirators were marched out through the gallery in front of flashing news cameras, the remaining board members stood up one by one, clapping frantically, terrified for their own positions, eager to pledge allegiance to the restored king.
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I raised my hand, silencing them instantly.
"The board is dissolved," I stated coldly. "Every member who signed Martin's proxy petition is fired as of this second. Clear your desks by five o'clock."
