Chapter 6 - Scorched Earth
Chloe shrieked when she saw the headline. She yanked her hand away from Daniel as if he carried a contagious plague.
"What is this, Daniel?!" Chloe screamed, her voice shrill and manic. "You told me you had forty million in offshore accounts! You promised me a penthouse in Paris after we got rid of her!"
Daniel stared at the newsprint, his trembling hands smudging the ink. "No... no, this is impossible. The city council contracts..."
"Cancelled," Cassandra answered crisply. "The harbor development project? Transferred to Thorne Maritime. Your mother Eleanor? Denied bail this morning due to flight risk after investigators uncovered six secret shell companies in the Cayman Islands."
"You did this..." Chloe turned on me, her eyes bloodshot with malice. "You ruined everything, you little bitch! I gave him two years of my life! I was supposed to be the lady of the Vance estate!"
Before Chloe could take another step toward me, two guards seized her arms, twisting them behind her back until she yelped in pain.
"You were a mistress who fed on crumbs," I said softly, looking her dead in the eye. "You wore my mother’s heirloom necklace yesterday. Where is it?"
Chloe stiffened. "I... I lost it during the commotion."
"Liar," Cassandra said. She reached into Chloe's trench coat pocket and pulled out the platinum chain with the sapphire teardrop, snapping it cleanly away from her coat. "Found in her possession, Chairman."
Arthur took the necklace, his eyes softening as he looked at the gemstone. "My late wife wore this on our wedding day. You put your filthy hands on it, Miller."
"Please, Chairman Thorne!" Chloe began to weep hysterically, dropping all pretense of arrogance. "I was manipulated by Daniel! He told me Vivienne was an infertile gold-digger who wouldn't sign divorce papers! He told me she was nobody!"
"And you believed what was convenient for your greed," I said. "Cassandra, have the modeling agencies blackball Miss Miller. Send a full dossier of her extramarital arrangements to the board of the fashion house she represents. Let the world know what kind of woman she is."
"No! Please! That’s my career! My entire life!" Chloe wailed as the guards dragged her out of the room, her designer shoes skidding across the marble floor until the doors slammed shut behind her.
Now, only Daniel remained, trembling on the floor like a condemned prisoner awaiting the guillotine.
"Vivienne..." Daniel crawled forward on his hands and knees, reaching toward the bassinet. "Just let me hold her once. Just once. I’m her father..."
I looked at the bassinet, where Aurelia stirred, letting out a soft sigh.
"The only thing you ever gave this child was pain, Daniel," I said coldly. "You signed a prenuptial agreement three years ago stating that in the event of proven marital infidelity, you forfeit all rights to marital assets and any claims to family heritage."
"That was for money, not custody!" he choked out.
"In my world, Mr. Vance," Arthur stepped forward, standing between Daniel and the bassinet, "you don't get to choose which clauses apply to you. Sign the relinquishment papers now, or Eleanor spends the rest of her life in a maximum-security penitentiary. Cassandra has the evidence to add twenty years to her sentence for money laundering."
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Daniel looked up at Arthur's towering figure, then at me. His spirit was broken. His pride was dead. With shaking fingers, he took the pen Cassandra offered and signed his name on the dotted line.
He surrendered his daughter forever.