Chapter 8 - The Price of ArroganceAdrian fell to his knees on the carpeted boardroom floor, his hands gripping his head in utter despair.
“Please... take everything! Take the company, take the patents, take the real estate!” Adrian sobbed, tears spilling down his cheeks. “Just let me rebuild something! I have a child on the way—Vanessa is pregnant—”
Richard Bennett’s expression didn't soften by a single millimeter.
“Vanessa is already packing her bags for a cheap apartment in Queens,” my father replied coldly. “And as for your child, a trust fund has already been provisioned by our family courts to ensure the infant’s basic welfare, managed entirely independently of you. You will never see a dime of it.”
Adrian let out a long, shuddering wail of absolute defeat.
My father turned his back on him, signaling the security guards. “Escort Mr. Vale out of the building. Make sure the press waiting downstairs captures every single second of his exit.”
As Adrian was hauled out of his own boardroom, kicking and screaming like a broken child, my father pulled out his phone and dialed my direct line.
I answered instantly.
“It’s done, sweetheart,” my father said, his tone instantly warming into paternal gentleness. “Adrian has been completely dismantled. The board is dissolved, the corporate shell is liquidated, and his name is officially radioactive in every financial market from London to Tokyo.”
“Thank you, Dad,” I murmured, standing by the window of my penthouse suite overlooking Central Park, holding a fresh cup of coffee.
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“Are you coming home to Boston tonight?” he asked softly.
“Not yet,” I replied, looking down at my reflection in the glass, touching the faint, fading bruise on my cheek where Adrian’s ring had struck me. “I have one last stop to make before I close this chapter forever.”
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