Chapter 4 - The Fall of Vance Logistics
The corporate offices of Vance Logistics were in absolute chaos. Employees were packing their personal items into cardboard boxes, the phones were ringing off the hooks, and two security guards in Vale uniforms stood at the main glass entrance, controlling access.
When the glass doors slid open, a hush fell over the lobby. I walked in, flanked by Marcus and my grandfather’s legal team. The employees stared in utter shock. They knew me as the quiet, poorly dressed stepdaughter who occasionally dropped off Victor's lunch—the girl Victor openly mocked in front of his managers as "a useless daydreamer."
Now, I was walking with the posture of a queen, the camel coat swinging elegantly around my ankles, my head held high.
"Elena?"
The voice was shrill, cracked with panic. I turned to see my mother standing near the executive elevator. She looked disheveled, her expensive makeup smeared, her fingers clutching a designer purse like a flotation device. She had clearly run here the moment the banks froze their personal accounts.
"Elena, thank God!" she cried, rushing toward me, her arms outstretched. "You have to talk to this old man! You have to tell his lawyers to stop! They’ve locked Victor out of the accounts. We can't even pay the mortgage on the house! Tell your grandfather that it was all a misunderstanding last night! Victor was just stressed about your future!"
Marcus stepped forward, his massive frame blocking her before she could get within three feet of me. Her arms fell to her sides, her face turning pale as she looked into my cold, unchanging eyes.
"A misunderstanding, Mom?" I said, my voice echoing clearly through the silent lobby. "He struck me with a belt. He threw me out barefoot in a snowstorm. And you dropped my coat inside and locked the door."
"I... I had to obey him, Elena! You don't know what he's like when he's angry!" she sobbed, looking around at her former friends who were now watching her disgrace with hidden satisfaction. "I did it to protect you! If I had fought him, he would have been worse!"
"No," I said, stepping around Marcus so I could look her directly in the face. "You did it to protect your comfort. You sold my safety for a house bought with my biological father’s stolen trust. Well, the lease on your comfort just expired."
The doors to the executive suite slammed open, and Victor Vance marched out, his tie undone, his face red and sweating. "Where is the manager of this circus? I am the owner of this company! You can't freeze my assets without a court order!"
He stopped dead in his tracks when he saw me. His jaw dropped.
"You..." he breathed, his eyes darting from my tailored clothes to the four lawyers behind me. "You little bitch. You brought these people here? You think because you found some rich sugar daddy to buy your sob story that you can ruin me?"
He lunged forward, his arm lifting instinctively, just like he had done in the dining room the night before.
He didn't even get close. Marcus moved like lightning, grabbing Victor’s wrist, twisting it behind his back, and slamming his chest hard against the marble reception desk. Victor let out a sharp, pathetic howl of pain.
"Let go of me! That's assault!" Victor screamed.
"Actually, Mr. Vance," the lead attorney, a sharp woman named Sarah, said as she stepped forward and placed a document on the desk right next to his face. "This is a legal execution of a corporate asset seizure. As of nine minutes ago, Vale Holdings has taken full ownership of Vance Logistics due to loan default. You are currently trespassing on private property."
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I walked over, looking down at the man who had tried to break my spirit. I reached into his breast pocket, pulled out the silver pendant he had stolen from my backpack the night before—which he had kept, no doubt intending to sell it—and clutched it tightly in my palm.
"You told me no one was coming for me, Victor," I whispered, my voice cutting through his groans. "But the Vales don't just come for their own. We come for everything you think you own. Security, throw them out. And don't bother giving them their coats."
