Chapter 38 - The Vault of Sins
"You have Arthur’s eyes," Evelyn Sterling said softly as the doors sealed shut behind us. "And his stubbornness."
She stood up slowly, her silk gown rustling like dry leaves. She looked remarkably preserved, radiant with that terrifying aura of unchecked authority that only generational wealth could breed.
"Twenty years," I said, my voice echoing across the silent chamber, holding the gaze of every billionaire at that table. "Twenty years of staged grief. You let me weep over an empty grave in Westchester."
"A mother does what is necessary to sculpt an empire, Claire," Evelyn replied smoothly, descending the small platform toward me. "Arthur wanted you to be an innocent. Innocents do not survive at this table. Innocents get swallowed alive by scavengers like Julian Vance. Look at you now. You dismantled Vance’s private intelligence network in seventy-two hours. You reclaimed the Manhattan exchange. You outmaneuvered the board in London. You are magnificent."
"I did that to protect what was mine," I countered, keeping my distance. "Not to hand it to an underground syndicate that murders its own partners."
A collective murmur rippled through the Council members. An elderly German industrialist seated to Evelyn’s left cleared his throat.
"Chairwoman Sterling," the man spoke, his voice dry as parchment. "We did not assemble in international waters to watch a family reunion. The girl possesses Arthur’s master authorization key. Demand she surrenders it, or the Council will enact liquidation."
Ethan's hand subtly drifted toward his lapel, but I raised my hand slightly, signaling him to hold.
"Liquidation?" I scoffed, turning toward the German oligarch with a derisive laugh. "Herr Weber, isn't it? The Weber-Krupp defense consortium? Before you speak of liquidating me, perhaps you should verify where your offshore liquid reserves are currently housed."
Weber’s brow furrowed. "What nonsense is this?"
"Before our chopper crossed French airspace, my financial team initiated a automated short position against every publicly traded asset tied to Weber-Krupp, funded entirely by Vance's confiscated accounts," I explained, pulling out a slender smartphone and tapping the screen. "In precisely four minutes, the European Central Bank will receive definitive proof of your illegal arms shipments to unauthorized embargo zones. You won't liquidate me, Herr Weber. You will be bankrupt before breakfast."
Weber turned pale, fumbling frantically for his encrypted phone.
Evelyn watched the spectacle not with anger, but with a chilling, radiant pride.
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"You see, gentlemen?" Evelyn murmured to the stunned room. "I told you. She is Arthur’s daughter, but she has my blood."
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