Chapter 7 - The Corporate Purge and Public Reckoning
By Friday morning, the Mercer empire did not simply collapse; it was vaporized in the public square.
The unedited video, released by the District Attorney’s Office following the formal indictment, had been picked up by every major news outlet in the country. CNN, NBC, and CBS ran prime-time segments breaking down the twenty seconds of footage. Medical professionals across the globe formed an online coalition using the hashtag `#JusticeForVeta`, posting videos explaining the mechanics of mechanical ventilation and the sheer murderous brutality of destroying an active circuit.
The corporate consequences were instantaneous.
Lueur Cosmetics, the multinational beauty conglomerate that had sponsored Bellamy’s lifestyle content, issued an immediate termination statement:
*“Lueur Cosmetics is horrified by the actions of Bellamy Mercer. We have immediately terminated all contracts, canceled all scheduled product lines, and filed a civil lawsuit in federal court to recover the two hundred and fifty thousand dollars in marketing advances obtained under fraudulent representations of character.”*
Aura Health, three luxury fashion brands, and an organic tea company followed within forty-eight hours, each filing cross-claims against Velvet Lifestyle Media for brand defamation and breach of contract.
YouTube, TikTok, and Instagram permanently banned all accounts associated with Bellamy Mercer, citing severe violations of their terms of service regarding violence and endangerment of vulnerable individuals. Her millions of followers vanished into dead URLs and error screens.
At Vantage Global, the executive board convened an emergency shareholder meeting.
Declan’s former division was placed under an independent forensic audit. The auditors discovered that Declan had improperly routed over eighty thousand dollars of corporate travel expense accounts to cover Bellamy’s private videographers and luxury hotel suites during her European tours. Vantage Global promptly referred the findings to the SEC and joined the federal criminal complaint against him.
In the county jail’s visiting room, Declan Mercer sat behind reinforced security glass, wearing orange scrub pants and a faded cotton shirt. His hands were raw from prison soap.
On the other side of the glass sat Kieran Mercer.
Declan grabbed the plastic telephone receiver with shaking hands. "Kieran! Thank God! Did you talk to Mom? Where is she? Why haven't they posted my bail?"
Kieran picked up his receiver slowly. He looked at his older brother—the brother who had spent their entire lives acting as Una’s golden boy, the smooth-talking executive who could do no wrong.
"Mom is in the women's detention center, Declan," Kieran said, his voice flat. "She violated the protective order at the hospital. Her bail was revoked because of the federal wire fraud indictment."
Declan’s breath caught in his throat. His eyes bulged with terror. "Federal? What federal indictment?!"
"You stole four hundred and eighty thousand dollars from Veta’s trust fund, Declan," Kieran said. "The FBI raided Hawthorne Ridge yesterday. They seized the servers, the luxury vehicles, and Mom’s jewelry collection. The locks were changed by federal marshals at three yesterday afternoon."
"I... I was going to pay it back!" Declan pleaded, pressing his forehead against the scratched glass. "Kieran, you have to help me! Tell Sloan to drop the obstruction charge! If she drops the obstruction, my public defender says I can get probation for the domestic dispute! I can't survive in here! The guards know what I did! The other inmates... they saw the video on the news, Kieran! They won't let me leave my cell!"
Kieran stared at him through the glass. "You watched your own daughter turn blue on the floor."
"I was panicking!"
"You were laughing, Declan," Kieran said, his voice cold as a winter grave. "You laughed. You adjusted the camera zoom. And then you told Bellamy to keep filming so you’d have leverage against Sloan."
"I didn't mean it like that!"
"You did," Kieran said quietly. "For fifteen years, you let Mom and Bellamy treat Veta like she was an embarrassment. You let them make her eat in the corner at Thanksgiving because her ventilator made a hissing noise. You stole the money that was supposed to keep her alive when she got old. You are not a father, Declan. You were just Una’s errand boy."
Kieran stood up.
"Kieran, don't hang up! Please! Kieran!" Declan screamed into the phone, slamming his free hand against the glass.
May you like
Kieran set the plastic receiver back onto its metal cradle. He turned his back on his brother and walked toward the exit doors without looking back once.
***