Chapter 5 - The Crown Princess
By dawn, the twelfth floor of St. Jude Thorne Memorial was locked down tighter than a federal reserve bank. Armed private security operatives in charcoal suits stood at every elevator bank, their earpieces humming with coordinated vigilance.
I sat propped up against the plush pillows of the VIP suite, sipping warm broth while Aurelia slept peacefully in a carved mahogany bassinet beside me. The humiliation of yesterday felt like a distant nightmare, yet the scars on my soul were raw.
The heavy suite doors opened, and Cassandra stepped in, carrying a leather-bound folder.
"Report," Arthur ordered from the armchair near the window, where he was reviewing digital markets on an encrypted tablet.
"Daniel Vance has been pacing the hospital lobby for three hours," Cassandra said with distaste. "He tried to force his way into the executive elevators claiming he is the biological father. Security detained him twice."
A cold smirk tugged at my lips. "He spent nine months telling his friends the baby wasn't his, that I was an unfaithful stray who tricked him into marriage. Now he wants to play the doting father?"
"Show him what we prepared," Arthur said quietly.
Cassandra handed me a pen and the folder. Inside were two sets of documents: an ironclad petition for sole custody based on documented domestic negligence, and a formal notification of a criminal investigation into the Vance Corporation’s tax fraud.
"Daniel didn't come alone," Cassandra added. "Chloe Miller is with him. She’s demanding to speak with you, Miss Vivienne. She’s claiming you deliberately entrapped Daniel and ruined her public image."
"Let them up," I said coldly.
Arthur raised an eyebrow. "Vivienne, you just gave birth hours ago."
"I am fine, Dad," I replied, my voice steady, hardened like tempered steel. "They took away my dignity when I was weak. I want them to look at me while I am holding the throne."
Ten minutes later, Daniel and Chloe were escorted into the suite by four hulking guards.
Daniel looked unrecognizable. His bespoke tuxedo from the night before was rumpled, his hair disheveled, dark circles bruising his hollow eyes. Chloe clutched his arm, her makeup smeared, wearing a cheap trench coat over her ruined designer dress.
"Vivienne..." Daniel took a desperate step forward, his voice cracking. "Vivienne, thank God. Is she... is our daughter okay?"
"Step back, Mr. Vance," the guard growled, blocking him with an outstretched arm.
"Vivienne, please!" Daniel pleaded, dropping to his knees. "I didn't know! I swear to God I didn't know who your father was! You lied to me! You lived like a beggar!"
"I didn't lie, Daniel," I said, looking down at him with utter disgust. "I told you I was Arthur Thorne’s daughter on our first anniversary. You laughed in my face, poured red wine over my head, and told me that if I was an heiress, you were the King of England."
Daniel froze, horror draining what little color remained in his cheeks.
"You married me because you thought I was an orphan with no family to defend me," I continued, voice cutting like glass. "You kept me in that cold guest room, starved me of affection, and let your mother treat me like an unpaid maid. And now, you dare ask for my child?"
"She is my daughter too!" Daniel shouted, tears spilling over. "The Vance family has rights!"
"There is no Vance family anymore, Daniel," my father's voice cut through the room like thunder.
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Arthur rose from his chair, tossing a morning newspaper onto Daniel's lap.
The front-page headline screamed in bold black ink: **VANCE EMPIRE COLLAPSES: FORECLOSURE NOTICES SERVED ACROSS 14 SUBSIDIARIES AS CHAIRMAN ARRESTED FOR MULTI-MILLION FRAUD.**