Chapter 36 - The Vance Family Vault
Julian swallowed hard, the corner of his eye twitching. The veneer of the polished corporate titan had completely fallen away, exposing the desperate heir scrambling to keep his empire from collapsing into dust.
"You don't understand the scale of what's happening," Julian said, his voice dropping to an urgent, frantic whisper. "The Saint-Germain bid... Marina Bay... it's not just the Vance Corporation. We took bridge loans from the Drake Syndicate to secure the excavation permits. If the municipal committee suspends the construction licenses at dawn, the syndicate calls in the debt. Ava, they won't just liquidate the company. They will destroy everyone associated with the project. Including you."
"The syndicate Marcus Vance sold his soul to twenty years ago?" Arthur countered, stepping between me and Julian. "The same criminals who tried to run me off the road? You brought them into our city, Julian. You welcomed the vipers into your boardroom."
"I had no choice!" Julian shouted, raw desperation cracking his voice. "My father left me four hundred million in unhedged liabilities! I was drowning before I took the CEO chair! Ava, I married you because... because my father ordered me to, yes. But I stayed because—"
"Don't," I cut him off, the word like a whip crack. "Do not dare tell me you loved me. You don't ignore someone you love for eight years. You don't treat your wife like a ghost in her own home while planning to strip her of her family's name."
Julian looked down at the teak floorboards, his shoulders slumping under the crushing weight of his exposed deceit.
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"The Drake Syndicate has men waiting at the municipal building," Julian whispered, not daring to meet my eyes. "If you walk in there with that brass seal, Arthur... they won't let you reach the committee chamber."
"Then it's a good thing we aren't walking through the front door," I said, my voice ice-cold.
