Chapter 3 - The Freezing of the Empire
"You can't do this!" Margaret shrieked, her aristocratic composure completely shattering as she stood up, pointing a shaking finger at Eleanor. "We are the Mercers! We have contracts! You signed a prenuptial agreement!"
Marcus Bennett, the chief legal counsel for the Vale Group, stepped forward from the shadows of the stage, holding a thick, leather-bound portfolio.
"Mrs. Mercer," Marcus said, his voice echoing through the ballroom’s sound system. "The prenuptial agreement your son forced Madam Vale to sign explicitly states that any assets hidden or fraudulently obtained during the marriage revert entirely to the injured party. Over the last four years, your son has co-signed over eighty million dollars in corporate loans from our subsidiaries under false pretenses, using his marriage as implicit collateral."
Marcus opened the folder, displaying a series of high-definition photographs on the ballroom’s massive projector screens.
The images weren't of business meetings. They were of Adrian and Savannah entering luxury hotels in Paris, kissing on yachts in Miami, and Savannah holding bags from Chanel—all paid for with Mercer Global corporate accounts funded by the Vale Group.
"Furthermore," Marcus continued, "we have documented evidence that Franklin and Brooke Mercer accepted direct kickbacks from these fraudulent loans to clear their personal mortgages and gambling debts in Macau."
Franklin collapsed back into his chair, clutching his chest, his face turning a dangerous shade of purple. Brooke buried her face in her hands, sobbing loudly as the high-society peers she had spent her life trying to impress began to back away from Table One as if it were contaminated with the plague.
"Adrian!" Savannah screamed, her voice shrill with panic. "Do something! You said you owned everything!"
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Adrian couldn't speak. He stared at the screen, his world imploding in front of the entire financial elite of Chicago. He looked at Eleanor, his eyes begging for a shred of the mercy she had given him for six years.
But the woman who had tolerated his cruelty was gone. In her place stood the trillion-dollar heiress.
