Chapter 5 - The Corporate Counter-Strike
The silence that followed Richard’s outburst was suffocating.
Vanessa stepped past her husband, her face twisted in absolute malice. She pointed a shaking finger at Elena. "It’s her, isn’t it? This scheming nurse played the long game! She waited for David to die, played the martyr, and now she’s whispering poison into your ear, Margaret, so her bastard child can inherit the entire estate!"
Elena stood up so fast her teacup tipped over, dark liquid spilling across the white tablecloth. Her eyes flashed with fierce protection. "Say whatever you want about me, Vanessa, but keep your filthy mouth off my daughter. I never asked for a single cent of your blood money. I raised Mia with clean hands and an honest heart—things you wouldn't understand even if they were handed to you on a silver platter."
"Enough!" Margaret slammed her cane against the hardwood floor. The hollow boom echoed through the high ceilings.
She stood up, towering over Richard and Vanessa despite her advanced age. The sheer force of her presence commanded obedience.
"You call her a nurse with such contempt, Vanessa," Margaret said, her voice trembling with restrained fury. "Do you have any idea what a nurse does? When Richard had his heart scare two years ago, who stayed up for forty-eight hours straight monitoring his vitals in the ICU? Was it you? No, you were in Paris shopping for furs. It was Elena."
Richard winced, looking down at the floor.
Margaret continued, turning her gaze back to her eldest son. "And you, Richard. You think your corporate executive title makes you a giant? Yesterday, Harrison showed me the internal audit of Whitmore Enterprises. You’ve been embezzling from the subsidiary accounts to fund your lavish lifestyle and cover up your bad real estate investments. You’re bankrupt anyway. I was simply accelerating the inevitable."
Richard’s face drained of every remaining trace of color. He staggered backward, catching himself against the doorframe. "That... that was confidential. How did you—"
"I own the company, Richard," Margaret reminded him dryly. "Did you really think you could hide millions of dollars from me forever?"
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Harrison Vance cleared his throat nervously, stepping forward with a fresh set of documents. "Furthermore, Mr. Whitmore, due to the activation of the fraud clauses discovered during today's asset freeze, the board of directors has called an emergency vote for tomorrow morning. Your position as CEO is officially terminated."
Vanessa let out a low, pathetic wail, collapsing onto the velvet sofa. "We're ruined. We're completely ruined."
