Chapter 4 - The Unmasking in the Cathedral
Victoria realized the trap had snapped shut on her own neck. All pretense of elegance, grace, and bridal innocence evaporated from her face in an instant, replaced by a snarling, venomous desperation.
"You arrogant bastard!" Victoria shrieked, her voice echoing off the vaulted stone ceilings, shocking the four hundred guests who had only ever known her as a soft-spoken philanthropist. "You think you're untouchable, Lucas? You think you can keep hoarding that entire empire for yourself and a dead woman's brat?!"
"Victoria, shut your mouth!" Julian Vance roared from the pew, rushing forward to silence his daughter, but it was too late.
"I spent a year and a half playing the doting mommy to that annoying, clinging little monster!" Victoria screamed, pointing a trembling, manicured finger at weeping Maya. "Cleaning up her messes, pretending to care about her stupid drawings, watching you look at her like she was the only thing that mattered in the universe! I deserved that trust fund! I earned every single cent of your money!"
The chapel erupted into an uproar. Prominent business partners, senators, and socialites stood up in disgust, recoiling from the woman they had gathered to celebrate. Cameras flashed as several guests began recording the meltdown on their phones.
Lucas did not raise his voice. He handed Maya gently to his younger sister, Clara, who had rushed up from the family pew with tears of protective fury in her eyes. Clara took the little girl, wrapping her in her own silk shawl and carrying her safely into the private vestry away from the cameras.
With his daughter safe, Lucas turned back to face his bride.
"Marcus," Lucas said calmly.
From the rear of the cathedral, Marcus Vance—the head of Sterling Global Security (unrelated to the disgraced Vance family)—strode down the aisle accompanied by four uniformed officers from the Metropolitan Police Department’s Financial Crimes and Child Protection Division.
May you like
"Mr. Sterling," Detective Miller greeted, pulling a set of steel handcuffs from his tactical belt.
"Officer," Lucas said, handing the Swiss placement papers and the forged medical declarations directly to the detective. "I am formally pressing charges against Victoria Vance and her associates for felony custodial interference, forgery of medical records, child endangerment, and attempted extortion."
