Chapter 14 - The Corporate Execution
"Jealousy?" I let out a sharp, humorless laugh that turned a few more heads. "Chloe, your entire existence is a house of cards built on other people's blood. And tonight, I think it's time it finally blows over."
I turned my back on them completely, dismissing them with a flick of my wrist as if they were nothing more than annoying gnats at a summer picnic. I looked up at Julian. "If Tyler’s firm, Vance & Hawthorne Development, is on the docket for tonight's pitch deck review, I want it pulled. Immediately."
Julian’s eyes flashed with predatory amusement. "Done. I’ll notify the compliance committee before you can finish your water."
"Wait!" My father lunged forward, but security guards—who had been hovering discreetly nearby—intervened instantly, placing heavy, unyielding hands on his shoulders. "Claire, you can't do this! We’re your parents! We raised you!"
"You didn't raise me," I said without turning around, walking away toward the main ballroom with Julian at my side. "You just kept me alive long enough to steal from me. Enjoy the rest of the gala. Security will show you the exit shortly."
Behind us, my mother’s hysterical sobbing echoed against the marble pillars, followed by Tyler’s furious shouting before the heavy oak doors muffled the sound. The gallery returned to its sophisticated hum, the crisis averted with the clinical precision of a scalpel.
Later that evening, standing on the balcony overlooking Central Park, Julian handed me a fresh glass of champagne. "Remind me never to get on your bad side, Claire."
"Just keep your portfolio balanced, Julian, and we’ll get along fine," I joked, though my heart was still hammering against my ribs.
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The confrontation had proved something vital: I no longer felt the phantom pain of their manipulation. The trauma was gone, replaced by a cold, glittering armor of absolute self-sufficiency. But I knew my parents wouldn't go down quietly. Desperate people do desperate things, and my family was drowning in a sea of their own making.
The next morning, the fallout hit my desk before I even had time to log into my terminal.
