Chapter 43 - THE CRUMBLING EMPIRE
The descent from high-society royalty to disgraced convicts took less than five minutes.
Carter lost all composure. He began sobbing openly, dragging himself across the floor toward David’s polished shoes. "Dad! Dad, please! It was Mom's idea! She forced me into it! She said the Sterling people would kill us if we didn't cooperate! Dad, please, I'm your son!"
David looked down at him with an expression of profound, weary sorrow. "My son is standing on that stage, Carter. He was cast out into the cold, penniless and slandered, and he fought back with honor. You were given every advantage this family could provide, and you sold my life for a pocketful of dirty silver."
David turned his back on Carter, walking toward Helena.
Two marshals hauled Carter to his feet, twisting his arms behind his back and clicking the steel cuffs tightly around his wrists. He squirmed and yelled, his designer jacket tearing at the seams, completely stripped of the arrogant facade he had worn thirty minutes earlier.
Evelyn, however, did not weep. She stood rigid on the stage, her manicured nails digging into her palms until droplets of blood stained her emerald dress. She stared at me with pure, unadulterated hatred.
"You think you won, Alex?" she hissed, spitting the words in my face as the female agent approached her. "You think you're better than us? You're just like your father—stubborn, blind, and clinging to useless ideals while the real world moves on!"
"The real world has laws, Evelyn," Helena remarked coldly, stepping forward. "And unlike you, Alex built his fortune with his own mind, not by poisoning the people who loved him."
Helena reached out and sharply unclasped the antique diamond necklace from Evelyn's neck, slipping it into her pocket. "This belonged to a woman of grace. You aren't worthy to touch it."
As the federal marshals led Evelyn down the stairs in restraints, she paused beside me, her eyes burning like dying embers. "You will never have peace, Alex. The Sterling Consortium is bigger than you know. They will come for what you stole from them."
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"Let them come," I whispered back, looking directly into her eyes without a trace of hesitation. "I'll be waiting in the front room."
The ballroom emptied in a panicked stampede of disgraced associates running from the waiting press photographers, who had already assembled at the front gates tipped off by Laurent’s media contacts. The flashing blue and red emergency lights illuminated the stained glass windows of Linwood Manor, bathing the ancient halls in the harsh colors of justice.
